"Everything is Fine"

5 August 2025

2 mins

Broke(n) Britain.

Sometimes, even when the advertising idea isn't clear, we have to marvel at the surefooted genius of the most talented people in the business... and this ad from Mother, directed by Steve Rogers, is as good an example as could be imagined. Every element of this down-at-heel musical number has been executed exquisitely. The choreography by Holly Blakey is *chef's kiss* and the soundtrack, provided by the clever people at Mr Pape, is perfect.

The ad's huge musical number constructs an image of the UK at bay, but stoically carrying on calmly despite, well, everything. We Britons pride ourselves for our fortitude in the face of setbacks and even though the reality is somewhat different, as was demonstrated when one of the nation's favourite fast food restaurants ran out of chicken, this self-image is an important part of our national psyche. This film tunes into it and then some... representing our ability to advance through life with smiles on our faces no matter how many brickbats (and brickrats) come flying in our direction.

It's an interesting advertising strategy to counterpose this depiction of glad-faced misery with nothing more than the name of the service. The hope, obviously, is to intrigue those dazzled by the ad to find out more about Coinbase and its store of cryptocurrency offerings. The path out of poverty, it implies, is to invest whatever spare money you might have into a portfolio of financial schemes such as Bitcoin, which are well known without people really understanding how they operate.

Cryptocurrency, like AI, is a technology of questionable morality that is nonetheless here to stay, and it should be considered legitimate to advertise a portal through which it can be bought and sold — and yet… this is unsettling. Thankfully, that doesn't detract from the magic of this ad, which is one of the best films to cross our desk so far this year.

UK

Financial Services