Coinbase challenges tradition in first UK campaign
Coinbase has launched its first UK brand campaign, using a tongue-in-cheek production to position crypto as a challenger to the traditional financial system.
The two-minute campaign video takes the form of a musical, featuring the repeated chorus “If everything is fine, don’t change.”
It portrays the bleak, everyday challenges that many Brits face, from leaky ceilings in rental homes and rubbish-strewn streets to rising shop prices and workplace redundancies. This all contrasted with a knowingly upbeat, “everything’s fine” and “it could be worse” attitude from the characters.
The advert ends with the strapline of “If everything’s fine, don’t change anything”, encouraging viewers to rethink a financial system that isn’t working for many and consider crypto alternatives like Coinbase as a way forward.
The campaign is built on the premise that the current financial system is outdated, backed by research showing that 77% of Brits believe the global system needs an overhaul.
Coinbase seeks to demonstrate that crypto offers an alternative to the traditional financial system and acts as money for the digital age.
The video also features a couple in a car declaring, “We’re off to Dubai, it’s time to jump ship,” a nod to how the UK is falling behind regions like the Middle East in embracing blockchain and cryptocurrency innovation.
The musical-style campaign will run across streaming platforms, online video and social media until the end of August, supported by out-of-home ads in London, Manchester and Liverpool.
[Update: 05/08]
Coinbase's advert has since been been blocked from airing on UK television. Clearcast, the organisation that pre-approves TV ads for compliance, refused to approve the campaign as it breached the rules set out by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice.
Clearcast argued that the advert made unsubstantiated political and economic claims and failed to include required risk warning for crypto investments.
However, Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, argued that the advert isn't political in nature.
In a post on X, he wrote: "Needing to update the system and improve society is not a political statement on either party in the UK ... It's a statement about how the traditional financial system is not working for many people and how crypto represents a way to improve that."
Armstrong added that the ban could ultimately benefit Coinbase, generating more attention and helping the campaign’s message reach a wider audience.