Matt Damon’s “Fortune favors the brave!” Crypto advertisement turns one year old

One year ago, On October 28, 2021, the company Crypto.com premiered an ad starring Matt Damon. After it appeared during NFL games, it drew a lot of attention for Damon’s suggestion that only cowards would refrain from buying cryptocurrency — but if you jumped in with both feet, you’d show courage comparable to that of astronauts. Crypto.com, based in Singapore, is a platform that mainly allows users to trade cryptocurrency.

On that day, bitcoin, the most famous cryptocurrency, was trading at $60,608 apiece. At the moment this was published, 1 bitcoin costs $20,717.

That means if you were encouraged by Damon to buy $1,000 worth of bitcoin last October 28, it would now be worth $342.

If you bought $1,000 in Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, it would be worth $363. One thousand dollars of the Nasdaq Crypto Index is currently trading at $336.

As the crypto market has crashed, the Damon spot has been the subject of worldwide ridicule and looks set to go down as one of the most spectacular own goals in advertising history. Crypto.com certainly recognizes this and has wisely set the YouTube version of the ad to private.

The good news is that you can still watch it here via Archive.org, and if you haven’t seen it already, don’t deny yourself its many joys. In it, Damon walks through a CGI Hall of Adventurers, past 1) a man who might be Christopher Columbus, 2) a mountain climber, 3) a Wright brother, 4) a man trying to kiss a woman in a bar, and 5 ) a group of multiracial, gender-balanced, futuristic astronauts. Damon, who you can tell is authentic because he hasn’t shaved, tells us:

History is filled with almosts – those who almost adventured… who almost achieved… but in the end, for them it turned out to be too much. Then there are others: Those who embrace the moment and commit. And in these moments of truth, these men and women, these mere mortals, just like you and me… as they peer over the edge, they calm their minds and steel their nerves with four simple words that have been whispered by the intrepid since the days of the Romans: “Happiness favoring the brave.”

There are so many fun things about this, it’s hard to keep track. But to begin, it’s a good idea to remember the probable origin of the phrase “fortune favors the brave.” In 79 AD Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer and military commander, witnessed the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearby. He decided to launch a rescue mission by sailing several ships straight towards the fire. His nephew later wrote: “Having hesitated a little whether to turn back, he soon said to the mate, who advised him to do just that: ‘Fortune favors the brave: go to Pomponianus.’

This was really brave, but the luck part didn’t work, as Pliny arrived at his destination and quickly suffocated. His body was later found covered in pumice.

It’s helpful to keep this in mind if you watch the “Making Of” video about the ad (also now set to private). In it, Steven Kalifowitz, Crypto.com’s chief marketing officer, explains that “Fortune favors the brave isn’t just a line for a campaign. It’s really how Crypto.com sees the world.” And Crypto.com actually seems to have charted a Plinius-esque path, as it reportedly just fired 40 percent of its workforce.

Then there’s the ad’s old 19th-century-style hucksterism. It’s easy to imagine Damon standing beside his carriage in front of a curious crowd and proclaiming, “You, sir! The gentleman who rode here on his tandem velocipede! I see you are here with your friend with the parasol and the huge fuss. But she surely won’t favor you with her feminine feelings anymore if you are too meek to try Dr. Crypto’s Snake Amalgam!”

The ad is also full of easter eggs for crypto enthusiasts. The lead astronaut’s name tag reads Satoshi, a reference to Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous inventor of bitcoin. The roof above the astronauts reads “HODL”, which stands for “Hold on for Dear Life”, a popular saying among crypto owners who vow not to sell their holdings no matter what happens to the price.

It is unclear how Damon was compensated for the ad. A Bloomberg article from October 28 of last year says Damon is an investor in Crypto.com, but not whether he received stock for his work. It also says Crypto.com made a $1 million donation to Damon’s charity Water.org, although it doesn’t say this was in return for the ad. “I’ve never done an endorsement like this,” Damon is quoted as saying. “We hope this is the beginning of a great long-term collaboration.” (Damon’s publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment and information about the terms of the ad.)

It is of course possible that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general will recover from their current swoon. The value of bitcoin collapsed by almost half in 2021 and then went on to new heights. Billionaire investor Peter Thiel has said that it could increase in value 100 times from its current level. If you’re a believer, feel free to bookmark this article so you can mock it when this happens.

However, it seems more likely that the value of cryptocurrencies will continue to deteriorate since there is no sign that they can serve any purpose that boring, ordinary money does not already.

If this happens, this “Fortune favors the brave” ad will go down in history as a particularly vivid example of how money as a concept fascinates the human mind and overwhelms our ability to think rationally. How could it be different? Money is both completely imaginary and also controls every aspect of our lives. The fact that it even got Damon – by all accounts an unusually intelligent and well-intentioned celebrity – shows how powerful and dangerous it is.