Acclaimed director Spike Lee has filmed and star in a commercial on Bitcoin for Coin Cloud, a company that manufactures kiosks to buy BTC and other cryptocurrencies, the New York Times reported. The commercial was shot in June 2021, and it’s part of the company’s marketing efforts to boost crypto adoption.
With several locations, which included Wall Street, Fort Greene Park, Washington Heights, and others, the commercial was shot with the additional participation of Lee’s daughter Satchel, Mj Rodriguez, and drag queen Shangela.
As usual, Lee was very transparent on his political views. The director believes that fiat currency is a tool used to the detriment of the people. He said:
Old money is not going to pick us up; it pushes us down. The digital rebellion is here.
As an alternative, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies offer an open and more equitable system. The New York Times claims that in his commercial, Lee portraits the legacy financial system as discriminatory. He added:
Anytime something is new, you’re going to have people who are going to be skeptical. With some of the best ideas, people thought the inventors were crazy.
Coin Cloud’s Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Amondo Redmon hopes that Lee’s trajectory as a filmmaker will have the crypto industry gain further acceptance. The commercial aims to convey the following message:
(…) more than just cool creative, but that is really at the forefront of digital currency becoming mainstream.
Lee received an Academy Award in 2019 for the adapted screenplay of “BlacKkKlansman”. He is also known for “Malcolm X”, “Get on the Bus”, “Chi-Raq”, movies that explored racism, civil rights movements, and the life of African Americans in the United States.
Bitcoin, An Alternative Against Discrimination In Traditional Finances?
Before the commercial was shot, Lee took a “crash course”, the report claims, on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. Lee was open on his lack of technical knowledge on the subject. Thus, he wanted the commercial to invite viewers to do their own research before investing in any cryptocurrency.
In the future, Lee could invest in BTC and other cryptocurrencies. However, he will stay clear from other sectors, such as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), digital assets which have been gaining a lot of popularity amongst celebrities. Lee said:
NFTs, I don’t understand that. I’m old school, so sometimes my children have to turn on the TV — all those remotes and stuff.
Lee has a particular perspective of the world, the U.S., and his movies often have a critical perspective of the political system. A combination of BTC and Lee was only a matter of time, Bitcoin and its networks lack the discrimination and prejudice of the legacy financial institutions, as he acknowledged:
(…) if anyone’s known my body of work over the last four decades, you kind of know about the way I see the world, and when they approached me, it fit in line.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin trades at $33,453 with minor losses in lower timeframes.
