Matt Damon’s Cryptocurrency Ad Is as Ridiculous as It Is Noxious

When Matt Damon signed on to be the face of Crypto.com a few months ago, the obvious reason for the partnership seemed to be that the cryptocurrency investment company donated a million dollars to Damon’s nonprofit Water.org. But Damon is now working to make sure we all understand the real reason for his interest in digital money is because it’s brave.

In an absolutely ridiculous ad, Damon walks viewers through a number of impressive feats: the invention of the airplane, vague images of explorers/colonizers, astronauts, mountain climbers, people flirting at a club—you know, history makers.

“With four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the time of the Romans,” Damon champions these pioneers, “Fortune favors the bold.”

Again, this is an ad for cryptocurrency—a thing Damon, as its spokesperson, is putting on the same level of adventure and innovation as space travel.

The ad—which was directed by Christopher Nolan’s go-to cinematographer Wally Pfister and produced by David Fincher—has apparently been playing at movie theaters for a while now. But in the last week or two, it’s also started playing during televised NFL games, which means that everyone who hasn’t been going to the movies (which is a majority of people in the U.S.) now also gets to laugh at the ridiculousness of this ad.

The ad is laughable but there’s also a hugely sinister element at play here. In addition to being environmentally devastating, crypto has been widely criticized as being a Ponzi scheme, since the opportunity for profit relies entirely on bringing in new investors. Since there is no external source for profits in cryptocurrency, users rely on driving up demand and then cashing out. So seeing an extremely wealthy and powerful person like Matt Damon work to drive that demand, which will then pretty much only benefit other already wealthy and powerful people, feels gross!

Making all of this extra gross, along with crypto.com’s million-dollar donation to Damon’s charity, the company is reportedly launching an initiative to encourage people to donate via cryptocurrency. That means with every donation to help people living in poverty gain access to clean drinking water via microlending, you can also make tech bros a little bit richer.

(image: screencap)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—

Have a tip we should know? tips@themarysue.com

Author

Close

Vivian Kane

Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.

twitter