Cast by voice, never seen
On 28 July 2025 Coinbase launches Human Nature, seven films made with Aardman in which recorded interviews with Americans about their finances are lip-synced to stop-motion plasticine animals.1 The format is Aardman's own, the one it built Creature Comforts on, and Coinbase names the reference itself: the studio behind Creature Comforts and Wallace and Gromit, brought in "to bring real conversations about people's financial realities to life through animated plasticine animals".2
The casting runs on sound. More than 70 self-tapes are reviewed and nine full-length interviews conducted, 36 cumulative hours of recorded conversation. Aardman's animators then choose each speaker's animal on the voice alone, without seeing the speakers' faces or their surroundings.3
Jean Morrow, group creative director at the Coinbase Creative Studio, describes where the interviews begin: "Initially, it began with a list of questions about their financial lives and their experience in our current economy." On what comes back: "We went into the interviews with a few hunches and some research, but some truths just hit harder when you hear dozens of real people saying the same thing."1
Source: Coinbase Youtube
Source: Coinbase Youtube
Source: Coinbase Youtube
Source: Coinbase Youtube
Source: Coinbase Youtube
What that costs to make
The production runs to 28 puppets and 416 mouth replacements across 16,400 frames, shot at 60 to 70 frames a day, which LBBOnline puts at around two and a half seconds of finished film per shooting day.1 Aardman produces, Rich Webber directs and Helen Argo produces for the studio. The trade credits list the client as direct, with the Coinbase Creative Studio as the originating department, Michael Tabtabai as vice president of creative and Mike Giepert and Matt Moore as creative directors. No composer is credited in any source consulted; music and sound sit with the house Where The Buffalo Roam and with Aardman, where William Davies mixes, Hilary Bergman produces the audio and Chris Stock edits it.4 Giepert and Moore are the same pair credited as creative directors on Coinbase's earlier Update the System films.5
Why a talking animal
Morrow sets out the problem and the answer in one passage: "In a lot of our work, we ask people to examine the financial system and their relationship with their own economic future. Most people don't really want to think about that stuff. Yet Aardman's style provides a charming and humorous way to discuss those challenging topics and examine heavy doses of reality."6
Coinbase states the same intention on its campaign page in a line of three parts, "Real people. Real conversations. Not-so-real animals.", and continues in the same block that Americans "opened up about how hard it is to navigate a broken financial system" and that "We believe crypto offers a better path forward".2
Further down the same page a section headed Crypto as a solution makes the product argument without the animals: "Crypto offers a new way to take control of your money. Traditional systems are often slow, expensive, and built for the few."2
The films run on broadcast television, including WNBA games, and on digital and social channels.1 They sit under Update the System, the platform Coinbase has been running since at least 2023, and they occupy the campaign address that previously carried a generational argument aimed at millennials and Gen Z.5
Written with AI assistance, edited by a human. Find out more about our Use of AI.
1. LBBOnline, "Aardman animates critter conversations for Coinbase", 28 July 2025, for the launch of the series of seven films on that date, for the production figures of 28 puppets, 416 mouth replacements and 16,400 frames shot at 60 to 70 frames a day and the publication's own calculation of around two and a half seconds of finished film per shooting day, for both quotations from Jean Morrow, group creative director at the Coinbase Creative Studio, and for the films running on broadcast television including WNBA games as well as digital and social channels. https://lbbonline.com/news/aardman-coinbase-creature-comforts-stop-motion-animation-crypto-ad
2. Coinbase, "Update the system", read 19 September 2026, for the description of the Aardman partnership with its Creature Comforts and Wallace and Gromit reference, for the line "Real people. Real conversations. Not-so-real animals." and the two sentences that follow it in the same block, and for the separate section headed Crypto as a solution and the sentences quoted from it. The page is served to this session in German; the English strings quoted are the ones the page serves regardless of locale. https://www.coinbase.com/updatethesystem
3. Animation World Network, "Coinbase and Aardman team for Human Nature ad campaign", 28 July 2025, for the casting method: more than 70 self-tapes, nine full-length interviews totalling 36 cumulative hours, and Aardman's animators choosing the animals on voice alone without seeing the speakers' faces or surroundings. Off-whitelist animation trade. https://www.awn.com/news/coinbase-aardman-team-human-nature-ad-campaign
4. shots, "Coinbase's cash-conscious critters", 28 July 2025, for the credits: Aardman as production company, Rich Webber as director, Helen Argo as producer, the client listed as direct with the Coinbase Creative Studio as the originating department, Michael Tabtabai as vice president of creative and Mike Giepert and Matt Moore as creative directors, and sound credited to Where The Buffalo Roam and Aardman with no named composer. Ad Age carries a 60-second cut of the film in its video library; its launch article is paywalled and was not read. https://shots.net/news/view/coinbases-cash-conscious-critters and https://adage.com/video/coinbase-have-dont-have-60s/
5. The One Club, One Show 2024 record for Coinbase's earlier Update the System films, for Michael Giepert and Matthew Moore as creative directors on that work, and for the generational argument aimed at millennials and Gen Z that the campaign address carried before these films. https://www.oneclub.org/awards/theoneshow/-award/51853/update-the-system/
6. STASH, "Cryptocurrency x Creature Comforts: Aardman explores Human Nature for Coinbase", 29 July 2025, for the Jean Morrow passage quoted whole and in the order the piece prints it. The same piece names five films where LBBOnline, Animation World Network and Coinbase's own playlist give seven; seven is used. Off-whitelist production trade. https://www.stashmedia.tv/cryptocurrency-x-creature-comforts-aardman-explores-human-nature-for-coinbase/
7. Coinbase's own YouTube channel, read 19 September 2026, for the seven long-form films of the Human Nature playlist, the three titles quoted and the pattern they share, their lengths of 45 seconds to a minute and their view counts of roughly 2,000 to 12,000; for the two 30-second cutdowns Have, Don't Have and Crypto Sweats uploaded in November 2025 at about 8.9 million and 4.7 million views; and for the description those cutdowns carry, stating the mission as creating an open financial system for the world. No source consulted states whether the cutdowns carried paid media, and the body does not claim it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYgA6NH3MTA
8. Coinbase, "Mission & Culture", read 19 September 2026, for the mission as the company states it today, to increase economic freedom in the world. The earlier wording, to create an open financial system for the world, appears in the S-1 filed on 25 February 2021 and had been replaced by the first shareholder letter after the listing, published on 13 May 2021. https://www.coinbase.com/mission, https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1679788/000162828021003168/coinbaseglobalincs-1.htm and https://s27.q4cdn.com/397450999/files/doc_financials/2021/q1/Q1'21-COIN-Shareholder-Letter-FINAL.pdf
