Well it's fast.
When the Rams and Bengals played at SoFi Stadium for Super Bowl LVI less than a year ago, more than 100 million viewers watched an ad promising an opportunity to ride the wave of the future : cryptocurrency, the argument that doesn't break. (or NFTs) and ecosystem, frothy digital commerce involving blockchain.
LeBron James is promoting the Crypto.com trading platform. Coinbase, another crypto exchange, spent $14 million to avoid QR codes. And who can forget that Larry David ad implying that cryptocurrencies were an invention on par with democracy and electoralism?
It was such an interesting marketing game that people dubbed the event the "Crypto Bowl" even before the game was even played. However, this year encryption is expected to be completely absent from the process. Mark Evans, Fox Sports' executive vice president of advertising sales, told The Associated Press that there will be "no mention" of cryptocurrency during the show.
"There will almost certainly be no celebrity-sponsored crypto ads in this year's Super Bowl," said Bonnie Patten, executive director of consumer advocacy organization Truth in Advertising. "If the past 12 months have taught us anything, it's that consumers shouldn't seek investment advice from celebrity endorsers."
This is a very quick change, but not surprising.
When Los Angeles hosted its last Super Bowl, the broader crypto economy — which includes digital currencies, tradable digital artworks and pockets of other online assets — was undoubtedly in the doldrums .
The cryptocurrency market fell into a steady slump in the middle of last year (though Bitcoin had a small rally in January). Coinbase and other crypto companies are laying off workers . NFT sales are falling . Major industry players such as Celsius, Luna and Three Arrows Capital have failed, while others, like crypto-focused video game developer Axi Infinity, have faced repeated scandals. Hacks and cons continue to flood the space; A regulatory response appears to be imminent or already underway
The clearest example of the declining state of cryptocurrency, however, is the spectacular collapse of FTX, the same cryptocurrency exchange that David (HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm") recently called a turning point in human civilization.
FTX filed for bankruptcy in November , and its former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — once considered an old man — is now under house arrest as he faces federal money laundering and fraud charges. (Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty .)
said Josh White, assistant professor of finance at Vanderbilt University and former financial economist at the Securities and Exchange Commission. "This stigma puts them under intense scrutiny from regulators and Congress...so reducing ad spending is prudent."
White added via email that the era of celebrities endorsing crypto apps may be over in the near future. (When crypto markets are at their best, you'll find Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton performing NFTs on late-night TV, or Post Malone and The Weeknd dropping crypto mentions in music videos.)
“Instead of using celebrities to legitimize, accelerate, or attract new customers to cryptocurrency adoption, many exchanges like Coinbase are using their funds to advocate for or drive changes in regulations or laws,” White wrote.
Fox Sports CEO Evans told the AP that four crypto firms were in the works, but those plans were shelved after Bankman-Fried fell out of favor. AdAge reports that small game development company Limit Break is creating a 30-second NFT demo.
Wherever the crypto industry is, viewers can instead expect deals from streaming services, alcohol and food brands, movie studios and car companies.
However, this will not be the end of the crypto drama.
David, Tom Brady and a group of other FTX promoters are facing a federal lawsuit alleging they promoted unregistered securities.
Whether this or similar cases will put lasting strain on the long-standing relationship between crypto capital and prominent influence.
It's also unclear how long it will be before the Super Bowl ad market ushers in the successor to cryptocurrency: generative artificial intelligence, or software that can (in theory) generate original text, art and media. Artificial intelligence generator modules like the wildly popular ChatGPT have taken the internet by storm in recent months and are now getting a lot of attention from Silicon Valley mainstays like Google and Microsoft . They look like Big Tech's next big shoe trend.
This may not be the year that AI takes the throne – a ChatGPT paid ad for avocados is said to be in the works but not finished in time. However, it seems only a matter of time before AI jumps into the big game.
Will Super Bowl LVIII be the first to feature hardware-generated advertising? Check back next year to find out.