Everything is fine.
Except, obviously, it isn’t.
The cost of living is still spiralling.
Wages are frozen in time.
Owning a home? Only if your nan left you one.
Enter Coinbase and Mother — with a campaign so British, so bonkers, and so on-the-nose it might just be genius.
A Musical About Economic Despair? Yes, Really.
Coinbase’s latest UK brand campaign, Everything Is Fine, doesn’t so much challenge the financial status quo as pirouette over it. Created with Mother and directed by Steve Rogers (no, not that one), it reimagines Britain’s economic malaise as a West End-style musical — complete with tap-dancing delivery workers and chorus lines in cluttered kitchens.
In short: it’s Les Mis meets Martin Lewis Live.
But here’s the twist: it’s not really about crypto.
The Art of Not Selling
What makes this ad so smart is what it doesn’t do.
It doesn’t push product.
It doesn’t throw jargon at you.
It doesn’t even try too hard to make crypto look cool.
Instead, it sells a question:
❓ If everything’s fine, why change anything?
It’s cheeky.
It’s catchy.
It’s culture-aware.
And it speaks to something deeper than the next blockchain token or Bitcoin bounce.
Because at the heart of this campaign is a brutal, very British insight:
Our real problem isn’t the system – it’s the resignation.
The collective shrug. The national pastime of ‘just getting on with it.’
Coinbase knows it won’t win over everyone — especially not the crypto-sceptics who still group NFTs with flat-earthers and Elon’s latest meme coin. But what it can do is plant a seed. Shift the conversation. Nudge the mainstream.
Why Marketers Should Pay Attention
This campaign is a masterclass in how to challenge a taboo without preaching:
- Medium-as-message brilliance: Using musical theatre — the most optimistic, expressive, and performative of genres — to highlight the silent, unseen suffering of modern financial life is pure creative inversion.
- “I feel seen” storytelling: Whether it’s the overwhelmed mum in the kitchen or the overworked courier dancing through chaos, the campaign nails relatability with an artful wink.
- Craft meets commentary: The set design, casting, choreography — it’s all high craft in service of a low-trust topic. That friction is what makes it work.
- Emotion before education: They’re not shouting “crypto is the answer.” They’re inviting viewers to admit that what we have isn’t working. The implication follows naturally: if not this, then what?
So… Is It Just Distraction Dressed in Sequins?
Of course, there’s a risk.
Crypto still carries whiffs of volatility, vanity, and Vegas. Some may see this as a musical sleight of hand — distraction marketing in its most dazzling form. And let’s be honest: the line between “disruptive” and “delusional” can be thin when your product is complex and misunderstood.
But that’s why this ad deserves attention.
It doesn’t condescend. It doesn’t promise the moon.
It simply holds up a mirror to the absurdity of pretending we’re OK — and uses our own coping mechanisms (humour, musicals, denial) to start a conversation.
Final Curtain
Whether you’re crypto-curious or crypto-cynical, this campaign gets one thing bang on:
“Nothing changes unless someone dares to say, this isn’t fine.”
Coinbase did.
In song.
With jazz hands.
And for that alone, marketers should take notes.
