Floki Inu Ads ‘Exploited Consumers’, Gets Banned by UK Regulator

London’s ads regulatory body, Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has banned the subway promo of Floki Inu for exploiting consumers’ fears of “missing out on the crypto boom.

Floki Inu, a meme coin based on Elon Musk’s pet Shiba Inu, launched an advert in London’s buses and subway network last year. The ad features a cartoon Shiba Inu donning a Viking helmet, enticing the audience who may have “missed” out on capitalizing on other popular cryptos, such as Dogecoin, to invest in the newer alternative.

Along with ad copy is a disclaimer informing that investments “may go down as well as up” and mentioned that digital assets are currently not regulated in the UK.

The ASA flagged the campaign for trivializing the risk of crypto investments, exploiting consumers’ fears of missing out, and taking advantage of some people’s lack of crypto knowledge.

We considered that the use of cartoon imagery gave the impression that purchasing cryptocurrency was a light-hearted and trivial matter. As such, it distracted consumers from the seriousness of an investment which was volatile and unregulated.

Floki Inu contended that the ad targeted the “informed customer.” On the other hand, the company clarified that the “average customer,” who lacks the knowledge in digital assets, is protected by the warnings in the ad’s small print and would not understand the inside joke and wordplay used as a copy.

However, ASA inferred that crypto is a “high profile and topical matter,” and the ads were addressed to the general public. The company’s use of smaller texts for the warnings compared to the main ad copy would give the impression to any commuter that buying Floki Inu now is a must to avoid missing out on profits.

The regulatory body further added that due to the ad exploiting “consumers’ inexperience credulity,” the campaign was deemed “irresponsible and breached the code.”