Solana has been criticized for releasing a controversial advertisement titled “America is Back—Time to Accelerate.”
The ad, meant to promote Solana’s blockchain technology, sparked widespread backlash for being divisive. Others say it was politically charged and out of step with crypto’s ethos of inclusivity and neutrality.
Controversial Marketing: Fallout from Solana’s Divisive Ad
The controversy quickly escalated, prompting Solana to delete the video after just nine hours of posting. Nevertheless, snippets of it remain online. This controversial advertisement featured a young man talking about technology and gender.
However, contrary to Solana’s expectations, the ad triggered criticism across the crypto community. Many industry figures and viewers found it offensive, with the backlash proving rather swift. Adam Cochran spoke plainly, stating that the commercial was bad. Meanwhile, others called it out for its political rhetoric.
“Peak Trumpism vibes, the easiest shots, and about zero creativity. This might be Solana’s least inventive ad ever. They went for attention over EVERYTHING, and well… mission accomplished, I guess,” a user on X remarked.
In the same tone, Base blockchain community members weighed in. They argue that it pandered to a specific ideological group and failed to reflect blockchain’s inclusive nature.
“This new Solana ad misses the mark so much. Offensive, cringe, and pandering. Base is for everyone. Solana co-opted the ‘is for everyone’ phrase last week too. This ad shows there’s still a long way to go in truly embracing that ethos,” stated Aneri, a product lead at Base.
Solana’s move to delete the video did not do much to assuage the already irked community. Critics remained skeptical about the decision, arguing that Solana’s leadership had only acted because of the financial impact.
“Took them 9 hours to delete it. Also, all the major players in the Solana ecosystem suddenly deleted their tweets promoting/supporting the ad and RT’d and liked takes about it being bad. They rolled it back because it hurt their business, not because they thought it was wrong,” Adam Cochran noted.
Amidst this backlash, Solana’s powering token dropped almost 4% over the last 24 hours. BeInCrypto data shows SOL was trading for $124.05 as of this writing.
Nevertheless, sympathizers downplayed the significance of the backlash, calling out the Base community for capitalizing on the controversy.
“Almost as cringe as thinking a bad ad from Solana would make anyone suddenly care about Base,” one user quipped.
Others, like eMon from Helius Labs, emphasized Solana’s decentralized nature. He implied that the controversy should not solely be attributed to the blockchain.
This controversy raises deeper questions about the fine line between marketing strategies and ideological messaging. With the blockchain industry striving for mass adoption, balancing commercial appeal with neutrality remains challenging.
Notably, this criticism comes barely two days after Solana’s fifth birthday. The Solana team built the first block on March 16, 2020. In a statement to BeInCrypto, Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, said that with this milestone, Solana blockchain is gearing up for its “iPhone moment” in the next five years.
According to Chung, the next growth phase will reveal Solana’s full potential in an increasingly competitive and mature crypto market. This speculation is based on Solana futures launching on the CME and potential SOL ETFs (exchange-traded funds) on the horizon.
“Solana has come a long way in the last five years, but in another five, Solana could be unrecognizable – and not in a bad way…In the next five years, Solana is about to have its own iPhone moment,” Chung told BeInCrypto.
Further, he cited the role of the meme coin frenzy battle in testing the Solana network to its limits over the past year. According to the Titan executive, it showed the network’s potential to handle huge volumes, high transaction speeds, and high-velocity trading.
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