Floki Inu (FLOKI), a Dogecoin (DOGE) competitor, has launched an “aggressive” marketing effort in London, plastering ads around the city’s railway stations and on the city’s famed red buses.
In a Sunday blog, Floki Inu revealed the new campaign, stating that “the people’s cryptocurrency” will begin advertising on the sides of 100 buses and 203 posters in the city’s subway stations on Monday.
The meme coin’s current marketing push follows a similar marketing blitz in late 2021 that sparked outrage from London Assembly member Sian Berry, who attempted to prohibit all cryptocurrency ads on the city’s train and bus networks.
Floki Inu and red buses
“Missed Doge?” read signs in FLOKI’s last campaign. “Get Floki.” In November, in a tweet, Berry compared cryptocurrency to gambling, adding that public services should not promote “risky” schemes.
The campaign drew so much criticism that the Advertising and Standards Authority (ASA) of the United Kingdom intervened, banning the commercial on March 2 because it “exploited customers’ anxieties of losing out, trivialized bitcoin investing, and took advantage of consumers’ inexperience.”
Despite the regulatory opposition, Sabre, the pseudonymous alias for Floki Inu’s head of marketing, underscored in the release that the team had no intention of standing down:
“In a sense, this second London campaign is an even bigger win for Floki and the crypto industry as a whole than the first, as our team has fought for the right to advertise our groundbreaking project to the public.”
“Some people wanted us outright banned, and the anti-crypto movement continues to spread like wildfire through smear campaigns and disinformation. “No matter what, the Floki Team will always remain firm,” they said.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) extended a slew of prohibitions on crypto businesses’ advertising in the UK earlier this year in January.
Two advertisements from Crypto.com, which advertised the convenience of acquiring Bitcoin and collecting yield incentives, were blocked by the authority because they failed to disclose the investment’s risk.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued ad bans on six crypto businesses in mid-December 2021 for “taking advantage of customers’ inexperience” and failing to highlight the risk of crypto investment.