Fortune did not, in fact, favor the brave: Matt Damon’s Crypto.com TV spot turns one
The crypto industry has had its share of issues with marketing, from projects many authorities labeled as scams to high-profile branding with sports franchises, but one ad that has stood out came from crypto exchange Crypto.com featuring Hollywood star Matt Damon.
Many have ridiculed the “fortune favors the brave” ad starring Damon since its release in October 2021, using the TV spot as a creative springboard to criticize the crypto space and celebrities supporting it. The creators of South Park have aired two episodes and one two-part special poking fun at crypto users and the Crypto.com ad specifically. Late night TV hosts including Stephen Colbert also targeted the ad spot with parodies and jokes following the market downturn in May.
At the time Damon showed his face promoting the exchange, the price of Bitcoin (BTC) was more than $60,000, Ether (ETH) was more than $4,000, and the total crypto market capitalization was roughly $2.6 trillion. Though some tokens have delivered gains to many investors since that time, the prices of BTC and ETH have dropped more than 60% since 2021, reaching $20,627 and $1,552 at the time of publication, respectively.
It’s unclear how much Crypto.com may have compensated Damon for the ad — he also received $1 million in donations for Water.org — but the actor was not the only celebrity promoting crypto firms. Actor and producer Reese Witherspoon’s company partnered with a nonfungible token collection to develop feature films and a television series, and Kim Kardashian promoted the EthereumMax project on her Instagram stories — which later led to charges from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
Today @SECGov, we charged Kim Kardashian for unlawfully touting a crypto
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