Solana has outdone itself again by creating another horrible advertisement. In its latest advertisement for the Solana Accelerate conference titled "America is back", the ad featured America as a man attending a therapy session who said he was having thoughts "about innovation" such as crypto.

The man's statement was only hit by the therapist's cold words to "do something more productive, like coming up with new genders". The therapist later also advised the man to focus on pronouns.

As the conversation goes on , the man snaps and launches into a monologue amid swelling patriotic music, saying he wants to "build onchain and reclaim my place as the beacon of innovation" and wants "to invest technologies, not genders" in an apparent dig at progressive values.

This advertisement has created such an uproar and such strong backlash that after nine hours, Solana decided to take the ad down.

Aftermath of the controversy

But before it was taken down, the ad was already viewed over 1.2 million times and racked up over 1,300 comments and 1,400 reposts, many of which baraded Solana for its insensitivity when talking about such a highly divisive political issue.

Tyler Bench, CRO of on-chain governance platform Tally.xyz, wrote on X calling this ad "the most toxic content he has consumed."

Similarly, Sean O'Connor, operating chief at Web3 firm Blocknative, commented on X, saying that this advertisement was culturally insensitive, especially in a time when trans people are facing such widespread discrimination.

"At a time when trans people are getting denied passports and being erased by the government.. .this is the ad you put out."

There are also other critics who claim that this move by Solana was more political than anything else, adding that Solana's was actually secretly trying to align itself with right-wing cultural rhetoric and pandering to the incumbent political party.

Following the waves of violent backlash, many key figures who had initially liked or retweeted the post gradually started distancing themselves as well.

Tushar Jain, Co-founder of Multicoin Capital, who initially made a cost call the advertisement bold and risky, also deleted his initial support for the ad and explained in another post, saying he initially liked the post because it resonated with him, but later realised that Solana should have addressed deeper culture war issues rather than surface topics like pronouns.

The Pudgy Penguin project, who also appeared to endorse the ad at first, replied with a rocket GIF, but later quietly deleted the post.

Adam Cochram, a partner at Cinneamhain Ventures later jokingly said all these supporters for the ad disappeared almost as quickly as it was posted. He added that all these people distance themselves from the ad because it hurt their business, and not because they thought it was wrong.

Aligning itself with the Trump Administration

There are some who also pointed out the sudden shift in political stance from Solana, given how it has always positioned itself as a supporter of diversity and inclusion.

During its conference in Singapore, its code of conduct explicitly prohibited discrimination based on gender identity and expression. But now it seems that Solana is shifting its message to align with the new political climate following President Trump's return to the White House.

Ceteris, the head of research at Delphi Digital pinpointed that since the 2024 Presidential election, Solana has shifted from a non-political tech platform to pandering to the current political climate. Ceteris even criticised Solana, saying"when you change your values based on who is in charge, you're valueless."

The sentiment was reiterated by Coinbase's Base product lead Aneri Patel, who said

"This new Solana ad misses the mark so much. Offensive, Cringe, and pandering. Solana co-opted the is for everyone phrase last week too. This ad shows there's still a long way to go in truly embracing that ethos."

Solana's first statement on the controversial ad

Amid the uproar, Matt Sorg, Solana Foundation's vice president of technology, tried to clarify that the ad didn't represent the entire ecosystem, writing

"Despite it being posted on the main channel, it's not like it represents the ecosystem being excited about the message."

Sorg also tried to explain that very few people had involvement with the ad's production and that much of the work has been outsourced. But his explanation was met with cynicism, with many asking how an ad like this could have been approved at all.

Despite all the backlash, crypto analyst Joshua Jake is calling this advertisement brilliant marketing. Jake explained that maybe this advertisement was deliberately designed to be cringy and rile out the crypto community to get more views, and the advertisement is achieving just that. Hence any publicity is still good publicity.