- An ad posted to Twitter/X by Solana was deleted just hours later after the crypto community widely criticised it for being cringe and offensive.
- There were over 1.4 million views of the ad, which primarily attacks the notion of gender diversity as it aims to highlight an American return to ideals of ‘hard work, innovation and rational thinking’.
The team behind the Solana blockchain has done a quick about-face by deleting a new advertisement within a day of its release, following widespread backlash about its cringe-worthy and insensitive message.
The video was shared to Solana’s Twitter/X account at around midday US time on Monday and was viewed 1.4 million times before being deleted later the same day. Solana’s “America is Back—Time to Accelerate” ad was supposed to generate excitement for the Solana Accelerate conference, but it’s unclear if it was intentionally controversial or inadvertently bad.
Weighing in on gender politics, media bias, and the perils of regulation, the ad depicts a man — who symbolises America — in therapy, talking about his desire for innovation. He’s told by his therapist that he suffers from ‘rational thinking syndrome’ and should redirect his energy towards coming up with a new gender.
Frustrated, America rises to his feet and gives an impassioned speech that ends with “I want to invent technologies, not genders,” before firing the therapist and leaving the room.
Related: SOL Down 16%, as Polymarket Bettors Believe Solana’s Slump to Continue in March
Industry Voices Express Disgust With Ad
In Solana’s ad, ‘America’ is in therapy because he’s plagued by thoughts about innovation and “things that push the limits of human potential” like space travel, crypto and AI. It seems Solana’s vision of America is a space-obsessed white man who hates regulation. Do we know someone like that?
A number of industry leaders decried the ad. Chief Operating Officer of Blocknative, Sean O’Connor called it “f*cking tone deaf”.
Crypto investor Mike Dudas called it “an absolutely awful, cringe ad”.
Partner at VC firm Cinneamhain Ventures, Adam Cochrane described it as “try hard” and said:
If every decision maker gave this a pass, it means you’ve got a corporate entity, who puts politics before neutrality, and has a warped politically blinded view of justice, fairness and innovation.
Adam Cochrane, Partner at VC firm Cinneamhain VenturesCochrane criticised the fact that a number of Solana ecosystem figures had originally retweeted and supported the ad before deleting these posts when the outrage erupted.
He also pointed to the fact that open source development includes a disproportionately high number of trans people who had found a welcoming community online, which made the idea that innovation was stifled by gender diversity “extra enraging”. “…because you stand on the backs of men and women who were sooooo much braver than you, to be themselves at a time when that was unaccepted, and still fucking innovated you under the table,” he said.
Drew Coffman from Ethereum layer-2 Base highlighted that earlier in the month, Solana had tweeted ‘Solana is for everyone’. He tweeted: “Solana this week: “solana is for people who think mocking pronouns is peak comedy”.”
As you’d expect from social media, it also sparked a series of sarcastic tweets:
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