Super Bowl crypto ads are as predatory as celebs hawking cigarettes

theguardian.com:

The Super Bowl in 2000 is often referred to as the “Dotcom Bowl”, because so many buzzy new internet companies like Pets.com and AutoTrader.com bought ads that year. Ultimately, 14 such companies took part in the feeding frenzy, scooping up 20% of all available spots. Soon after, the stock price of many of these companies began to sharply deflate, and today that game is often described as the peak of the Dotcom Bubble.

Super Bowl ads have long reflected the cultural currents that deep-pocketed corporations are trying to harness in a given era. Last night, they pointed towards the powerful pull of speculation that has enraptured so many over the past few years as betting platforms and cryptocurrency exchanges flooded the air with eye-catching spots.

These ads weren’t cheap. NBCUniversal reportedly charged $7m for 30-second spots, the highest price ever. But for companies flush with cash and scrabbling for space in a lucrative and crowded market, buying one was a no-brainer.

Most went long on classic Super Bowl ad tropes, with A-list actors and athletes in campy storylines fleshed out with high-budget visuals. Caesars enlisted Halle Berry and the Curb Your Enthusiasm star JB Smoove to portray the eponymous Roman emperor and Cleopatra at dinner with Peyton Manning and his family. Crypto.com’s ad featured Lebron James time-traveling back to 2003 to give his younger self a motivational speech, implying that investing in cryptocurrency requires as much bravery as trying to make it to the NBA.

Sports betting, legalized in New York this year, was a hot topic at the Super Bowl party I attended. The first thing many people talked about when they walked in the door wasn’t who they were rooting for, but rather which players and outcomes