Solana Removes ‘Offensive,’ ‘Cringe’ Ad Following Intense Community Backlash

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Sujha Sundararajan

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Sujha Sundararajan

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March 18, 2025 04:10 EDT

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Solana’s now-deleted “America is Back—Time to Accelerate” ad on X received immense criticism from the community with tags including “cringe,” and “offensive.”

On March 17, the blockchain platform posted an ad that depicted a man named “American” in conversation with a consultant. The person has been detected with “rational thinking syndrome” during the therapy session.

Solana’s “Accelerate” Conference Ad

‘American’ expresses interest in fields, including tech innovation, nuclear energy, crypto and AI.

The video showed the consultant guiding him to focus on gender identity, and social constructivism. However, American expressed dissatisfaction, yelling out “I want to invent technologies, not genders.”

Towards the end of the ad, American burst through the door, with the screen displaying “American is Back.” The ad was a promotional content for Solana’s upcoming Accelerate conference in May 2025.

1.4M Views in 9 Hours, Community Citicizes

The ad was deleted 9 hours after it reached 1.4 million views from the community. It caught the attention, featuring patriotic themes and, in particular, against gender diversity.

Tyler Bench, CRO of on-chain governance platform Tally.xyz, wrote on X calling this ad “toxic.”

“It’s like the Coinbase ads if they were created by an incel who hasn’t left the basement in years,” bench added.

Meanwhile, Adam Cochran, partner at Cinneamhain Ventures, reposted the video, questioning how the Solana team had approved such ads.

“They rolled it back because it hurt their business, not because they thought it was wrong,” he wrote, slamming the team behind the promotion.

Cochran wrote in another post, “Imagine thinking this is a good commercial,” calling the ad a “cringe.” Another user claimed that the ad is “offensive, cringe, and pandering.”

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko himself took to X, complaining that the previous “Maren ad was better” than the current one.