A cryptocurrency company advised by George Osborne has been banned from showing a set of adverts that suggested using its services could be a solution to the cost of living crisis.
Coinbase, which appointed the former Conservative chancellor to chair its global advisory council last year, has been told by the UK’s advertising watchdog that its adverts were “irresponsible” and “trivialised the risks of cryptocurrency”.
The adverts from the US crypto exchange include a sarcastic two-minute video showing people singing “everything is just fine, everything is grand” as their home falls into a state of disrepair and suffers a power cut, while outside Britons cheerfully dance through streets littered with rats and piles of overflowing bin bags.
As the ad progresses, a shopper faces rising prices for fish fingers in a supermarket, white-collar workers lose their jobs, a sewage pipe bursts and rubbish falls from the sky.
The clip ends with large text saying: “If everything’s fine, don’t change anything”, before being replaced with the Coinbase logo. The company, which was founded in 2012, provides a platform for people to buy and sell various cryptocurrencies.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the advertising campaign, which launched in August, implied that using Coinbase could be an alternative to the financial concerns associated with the cost of living, and so trivialised the risks associated with investing in cryptocurrencies.
“We considered that using humour to reference serious financial concerns, alongside a cue to ‘change’, risked presenting complex, high-risk financial products as an easy or obvious response to those concerns,” it said.
Osborne was appointed in December to run Coinbase’s global advisory council to assist with the company’s lobbying in the UK and EU, having already been an adviser to the company for the past two years.
The company’s chief policy officer at the time said Osborne would play an “active role in helping us with policymakers around the world”. Last August, the former Tory MP had written a column in the Financial Times warning that the UK has been left behind in the cryptocurrency boom and is in danger of missing a second wave of demand.
The former politician last month added a role at ChatGPT developer OpenAI to his portfolio of positions, which also includes being the chair of the British Museum and a co-host of a podcast with the former Labour minister Ed Balls.
Three posters from Coinbase were also banned by the ASA, which in large letters stated: “Home ownership out of reach,” as well as “real wages stuck in 2008” and “eggs now out of budget”. Small white background text read: “Everything is fine”repeatedly. The bottom of the poster said: “If everything’s fine, don’t change anything” next to the Coinbase logo.
Neither the video nor the posters contained any information about the risks of investing in cryptocurrencies, the ASA said, despite the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority warning that cryptocurrency is “largely unregulated and high risk, and that buyers should be prepared to lose all of their money”.
The video advert by Coinbase had already been banned from television by Clearcast, which approves television ads in the UK, but the ASA said it had been shown on multiple online platforms, while the posters had been displayed in “high-traffic areas such as the London Underground and rail stations”.
A spokesperson for Coinbase said: “While we respect the ASA’s decision, we fundamentally disagree with the characterisation of a campaign that critically reflects widely reported economic conditions as socially irresponsible.
“The advert was intended to provoke discussion about the state of the financial system and the need to consider better futures, not to offer simplistic solutions or minimise risk.
“While digital assets are not a panacea, we believe their responsible adoption can play a constructive role in a more efficient and freer financial system. Coinbase remains committed to authentic, thought-provoking communication and to operating responsibly within the UK’s regulatory framework.”