Matt Damon has once again riled up people on Twitter, this time for starring in a pretentious ad for a crypto-trading app in which he compares buying up Bitcoin to some of the greatest achievements in human exploration — from the Wright brothers’ first flight to astronauts exploring space.
In the 60-second TV spot, which ran during Sunday’s NFL games, Damon solemnly pronounces, “Fortune favors the brave” after strolling down a minimalist hallway straight out of a science fiction movie, with visions of some of the world’s great explorers appearing on each side.
“History is filled with almosts,” Damon says loftily, as he walks past the vision of an explorer who sailed the oceans hundreds of years ago. “Then there are others, the one who embrace the moment, and commit,” Damon adds, as he walks past a vision of perhaps Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay trying to reach the summit of Mount Everest and of the Wright Brothers taking flight in their 1902 glider.
“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 intrepids since the time of the Romans: Fortune favors the brave.”
At this point, the screen shows the logo and web address Crypto.com, an app that serves more than 10 million customers, Variety reported. With the ad, Damon joins other celebrities, such as Kim Kardashian, Stephen Curry and Tom Brady, who have hawked digital currency.
But Damon’s promotion of the currency, particularly in such a pompous way, has made him the target of ridicule and aggravation. The ad actually began appearing on movie theater screens this fall, but the Twitter fury has been building over the past week or so and seemed to escalate over the weekend when Intercept investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein posted:
Matt Damon doing a crypto ad. Jesus Christ does he not have enough money already pic.twitter.com/mS3tUgJ6HT
— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) January 3, 2022
While Damon probably is being paid to do the ad, Variety also reported that the actor is also partnering with Crypto.com on his global non-profit, Water.org, which brings safe water and sanitization to people in need. The platform made a $1 million direct donation to the nonprofit and is launching initiatives to encourage its own users to support the cause.
Certainly, both Damon and Crypto.com can say they are being philanthropic with their partnership, but people on Twitter are cynical about the actor’s aggrandizement of the platform. Twitter users especially joined in to laugh at Damon for suggesting that buying “$5 worth of Bitcoin” could put people in the same pantheon of people who have tried to scale Mount Everest or land on the moon.
I can just not stop laughing that Matt Damon’s pitch for crypto is “Be like a brave explorer, invest your life savings in crypto.” This is the same pitch my buddy in 6th grade used to get me to dive from a railroad trestle into the river pic.twitter.com/pZpeSjEheE
— Todd in the Shadows (@ShadowTodd) December 27, 2021
My favorite 2021 theater experience was a double feature of Cronenberg’s THE FLY and TITANE.
A close second was when they showed that Matt Damon commercial before HOUSE OF GUCCI and when it was revealed to be about cryptocurrency the entire theater bust out laughing. pic.twitter.com/NolDfkzPty
— ???-??? ???????? (@ObiWanJabronie) December 30, 2021
Others tried to have fun with the idea of Damon, the star of “Good Will Hunting,” “The Martian” or the Bourne movies, starring in this ad:
I know Matt Damon got paid for the Crypto ad, but how about make it creative.
Have him in full Jason Bourne mode..dodging bad guys in Moscow. He goes in the safe deposit box room to pick up some money, a fresh passport and a gun. When he opens the box, it’s chock full of crypto. pic.twitter.com/Sm2dZfaqYy
— Paul Pabst (@PaulPabst) January 3, 2022
Still others joked about whether Damon is being paid in crypto-currency or actual dollars for the ad:
am i supposed to believe that Matt Damon only accepted a crypto payment for his appearance in this https://t.co/oYU3cylBtq
— Sana Saeed (@SanaSaeed) January 3, 2022
Finally, a good share of Twitter users raised serious concerns about Damon, a multi-millionaire, trying to sell regular people on the idea of risking their savings with risky investments in “wholly artificial assets.”
The 2022 reboot of Good Will Hunting ends with Ben Affleck pulling up to Matt Damon’s empty house to discover that Matt Damon has persuaded him to invest his life savings in a cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme, and moved away. pic.twitter.com/fwAdAMv698
— Sean the Leprechaun (@seanryan4) January 3, 2022
Let’s be clear here.
Matt Damon…. is not risking his livelyhood by investing in crypto. He’s paid for this. He almost certainly doesn’t give an entire tin shit about it.
Do _NOT_ invest in crypto. Especially if you can’t afford to lose every goddamn cent you put into it. https://t.co/1bit0X4NBR
— (((Mad Bastard))) (@MadBastard_v2) January 3, 2022
This ad really bothers me, it’s encouraging people to take massive risks. Fortune favors the brave should be caveated with dead men tell no tales.
— ChunkWhiteTuna©️™️ (@chunkwhitetuna) January 3, 2022