Celebrities promoted cryptocurrencies with avatars with teddy bears. Some of them are already withdrawing, but the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) is speaking

Magda Gessler, Krzysztof Gonciarz, Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Ola Nowak are the first public figures in Poland to change their avatars in social media into characteristic teddy bears. However, these are not ordinary pictures – each of them cost about 2,000. zloty. What is this action about?

2 thousand zlotys. That’s how much celebrities and influencers pay for … graphics with a teddy bear

The Polish company Fanadise sells digital avatars as part of a promotional campaign for the new Fancy Bears Metaverse collection. Each avatar is unique – it has attributes that somehow refer to its owner.

The Fancy Bears Metaverse collection contains exactly 8888 of these images and can only be purchased using Ethereum. For one such graphic in pre-sale you have to pay 0.15 ETH, which is about 2,000. zloty. It is worth adding that the Fancy Bears Metaverse is a European response to a similar American project Bored Ape Yacht Club.

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NFT avatars are an investment – can be risky

As we explained in our previous article, NFTs are unique certificates that confirm the ownership of a specific digital good – in this case, it is about avatars (simply put: blockchain technology means that a link that leads to a graphics stored on the server is assigned to only one a person and she is its “owner”). The certificate confirms that the picture is the original.

What can you do with an avatar like this? The owner can simply keep it or wait for it to increase in popularity and then sell it for a higher price. However, holders can also enjoy being part of an “elite club” and participate in competitions or meetings that will only be open to their members. Thus, the purchase of NFT images is treated more like an investment that can be profitable or lost.

After numerous negative comments, Magda Gessler and Malik Montana changed their avatars. On the other hand, Krzysztof Gonciarz, Joanna Jędrzejczyk and Ola Nowak stayed with the avatars with NFT teddy bears.

UOKiK comments on the NFT bear campaign. “We are watching”

The entire action with NFT pictures, displayed by Polish celebrities and influencers in social media, is being watched by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. “We are monitoring teddy bears and their online promotion as part of the activities already carried out against influencers” – he explained in response to a question asked by the website. On January 6 this year, the office informed on Twitter that Internet users should report influencers who advertise scam.

However, in November 2021, he announced that he wanted to impose penalties on Julia Kuczyńska “Maffashion”, Marcin Dubiel, Marek Kruszel “Kruszwil” and Marlena Sojka for the lack of cooperation in the proceedings regarding marketing activities. President Tomasz Chróstny also initiated an investigation to determine whether they were promoting fraud.

“We are in the course of both proceedings, in which we investigate both the scam and the way of labeling messages in social media. We are in contact with the advertising industry in order to establish the framework principles of the guidelines. At the same time, we analyze the market on the basis of the information obtained” – the Virtual Media service informed UOKiK.

The Office assured that it will take a closer look at social networks and profiles of the most popular Polish influencers to check whether the advertising content is marked at all, and if so, whether it is clear and distinct enough. UOKiK also wants to verify the causes of influencers’ negligence, e.g. whether it is required by sponsors.