And if you’re asking me about it, it is way too late.In the ad, Damon takes viewers on a historical journey of brave men and women who have made a difference in the world, inspiring people to “be their bravest selves.” The ad, directed by Wally Pfister, began airing in October and also ran during NBC’s Super Bowl LVI telecast. Do you think I should get into crypto?” And the answer there is like absolutely not. Even last year, I had friends who never in their lives asked me anything about investing suddenly saying, like, “Hey, but I need to make some quick money. And you see this stuff all the time, where just maybe, you know, it’s not a single commercial that you’ve saw, but just, it kind of gets in there. That’s the thing, it’s kind of everywhere. Ryssdal: So look, the first time I heard about that Matt Damon ad - which, you know, many Super Bowl ads are released, you know, a day or two in advance, whatever - but even if you didn’t watch the Super Bowl, you saw that Matt Damon “fortune favors the brave” ad somewhere in your social feed. But it does kind of put it more into the water stream in a way that maybe I start to think about it. Like maybe I didn’t see the Tom Brady ad or the Larry David ad and then buy bitcoin or whatever. And I think kind of more broadly, like I said before, there is this mainstreaming of it. That was behind financial advisers and family members or business reporters. You know, Morning Consult did a survey that found that about 20% of investors and 45% of crypto owners said that they would invest in cryptocurrency if famous people endorsed it. Ryssdal: Does it work? I mean, does Tom Brady doing whatever that weird plug in ad thing was, I don’t even remember, but does that make people buy crypto? And right now we are in a bit of a crypto winter, I guess. And I think a lot of people, you know, got really excited and kind of didn’t realize that crypto has historically gone through these boom and bust cycles. And it really kind of mainstreamed crypto in a way that to me felt a little bit different. But, you know, we really did see, I think, at the beginning of the year and late last year just a ton of celebrities really diving into crypto. Whether that be Reese Witherspoon or Tom Brady or Larry David, I would venture to guess that these people have investment managers who probably tell them not to do a ton of crypto. Celebrities are rich, for reasons having nothing to do with their crypto investments. I mean, I think it goes without saying, you know, not always a great idea to follow celebrities into any investment. And now crypto is tanking and I’m going, “How do you feel now, Matt Damon?” He probably isn’t too worried about it, but the people who bought crypto because Matt Damon said fortune favors the brave are kind of out of luck. Ryssdal: Can we talk then about specifically crypto, which is the thing that honestly, you know, back during the Super Bowl and Matt Damon and “ fortune favors the brave” and all this. It’s obviously a little bit higher stakes than chips that you don’t like. But when it’s your money, it’s a little bit of a different story. Why is that money endorsement relationship kind of different?Įmily Stewart: Well, I think it’s one thing if a celebrity tells you to buy a bag of chips, right? You don’t like the chips, they’re gross, fine. Kai Ryssdal: Celebrities endorse stuff all the time. The following is an edited transcript of their conversation. She spoke with “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal about the endorsement relationship. And with the crash, some celebrities who have advertised cryptocurrencies have come under fire for encouraging people to invest in them.Įmily Stewart, senior correspondent at Vox, wrote about the relationship between celebrities and financial products and services. The values of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have plunged in recent months.