rp Reacts: Crypto Battles EVs in Super Bowl LVI

If you're an LA fan, you may still be sore from happy dancing after the big game. And a big game it was—with over 100 million viewers tuning in, there's no doubt the competition at this year's Super Bowl captured America's attention. And so did another rivalry happening off the field between plays. We're talkin' about cryptocurrency and electric vehicle brands duking it out to be the ad category that owned the day.

Both crypto and EVs have been hot topics lately despite varying levels of adoption. Our team of experts weighed in on which category walked away with the Lombardi trophy of advertisements at Super Bowl LVI. Here's what they said:

Chevy's Sopranos ad made me want an EV pronto. FTX's Larry David crypto ad was one of my favorites of the night—but it didn’t actually make me want to invest in the product.

Allison Mendoza, Project Manager

Honestly, the crypto ads overall felt boring and overdone. Even with all of the celebrity appearances, the ads just felt tired and like they were pushing an idea without saying anything real about it.  

EVs won in my book—while the individual ads pushed benefits and individual cars, I felt that the ads as a whole communicated a breadth of offerings and an informative look at the technology behind the cars.

Greg Frank, Associate Creative Director

The Larry David FTX commercial was just hilarious. And the Coinbase QR commercial? Talk about the comeback of the QR code. When I saw that, I was telling everybody in the room about all the videos of people losing their mind when the dvd logo hits the corner perfectly...and then the Coinbase QR code did and I LOST MY MIND!

There's huge bravery in going so simple...I heard it even crashed the Coinbase site temporarily. Yes, the QR code has made it.

Matt Reed, Creative Technologist

I felt that a lot of the EV ads blended together, whereas for crypto, the two that stood out (coinbase and FTX) were completely different. One was low production cost and super avant garde, and the other was more of an epic with a big name (Larry David) and an in-depth storyline. The fact that both of these were memorable in different ways definitely made me feel like crypto stole the show.

Jesse Spear, Marketing Manager

Kia's electric vehicle spot may not have convinced me to buy an EV—but it did make me want a robot dog. 

Karla Jackson, Associate Creative Director