DigiDaigaku airs a $6.5m crypto ad promising free mint NFT to Super Bowl viewers
A crypto startup aired a Super Bowl ad that gave viewers access to mint and collect a complimentary NFT. The massive $6.5 million ad is generating immense controversy in the crypto community.
Super Bowl ad in an uncertain market
Imagine getting a free NFT and selling it for hundreds of dollars. As unlikely as that seems, that is the experience of many people who got their hands on the NFT of DigiDaigaku, an anime gaming project that was advertised by Limit Break, a web3 gaming platform.
The ad, which the company said cost $6.5 million, is one of the only crypto-themed ads at the Super Bowl. This is not surprising considering the how bad the crypto and NFT market was affected in 2022.
10,000 collectibles offered free
The ad features a QR code that enables users to mint one of 10,000 free NFTs. Even though the process didn’t work as seamlessly as envisaged, many viewers who got the free collectibles are selling them for values as high as $700.
Limit Break, the company behind the advert, used the ad to promote the upcoming Ethereum-based gaming project, DigiDaigaku. The QR code, according to the advert, enables viewers to mint, generate, and claim one of the free NFTs that the platform was offering viewers.
A redirected site
Many users, however, complained that they were unable to mint and claim the NFTs even after scanning the QR code. They were redirected to the Twitter profile of the co-founder of Limit Break, Gabriel Leydon.
Many disgruntled users complained about the QR code that redirected people. One Twitter user, Threadguy wrote:
“I dropped everything to watch the Super Bowl for a 30-second ad that was supposed to bring generational wealth from a free mint,” he tweeted, adding “and all I got was the opportunity to follow a mfer on Twitter.”
An opportunity for an engagement farming
Some viewers who could not mint the collective described the redirecting website action as an engagement farming. Others said that the main issue was that the process was not simple enough for all viewers, citing the need for an Ethereum wallet before the NFT could be claimed. This, according to them, effectively excluded newcomers to the crypto space.
There were others that expressed misgivings that Leydon posted a link to the mint site before the ad commenced. The pseudonymous YouTuber Popeye is one of those who were not impressed with the way Leydon broadcasted the mint link prior to the ad. He wrote:
“Dude really paid millions on a Super Bowl ad to leak the link on Twitter first and rug the mass public of their first NFT experience. This could have been massive if it was a super easy onboarding process with no wallet creation etc.”
Sold for 0.5 ETH in secondary market
There is no doubt that Limit Break gave away some of the NFTs before the ad was aired to the Super Bowl audience. However, it has not prevented those that did get the collectibles from flipping them in the secondary market, with many making a lot of money out of it with the Super Bowl still ongoing.
Data from the NFT marketplace OpenSea said that the price of DigiDaigaku Dragon Eggs NFTs was 0.5 ETH at mint, even though the price fluctuated as the game progressed.
