SpongeBob NFT Collection

Submission 9,432

Part of a series on SpongeBob SquarePants. [View Related Entries]

Overview

The SpongeBob NFT Collection is a collection of NFTs to be minted by the broadcasting company ViacomCBS in spring 2022. ViacomCBS owns Nickelodeon, among other television channels like MTV. News of the collection first broke on Twitter in October 2021. The collection, and Viacom in general, received backlash across Twitter, mostly based on opinions from users about continuing to exploit the television show, as well as allegedly jumping on the "NFT bandwagon."

Background

On October 13th, 2021, ViacomCBS President of Consumer Products, Pam Kaufman, announced in a press statement released by Businesswire^[1] that the company would be partnering with the NFT company RECUR to create a "fan-focused platform" centered around the most "iconic IP and cherished franchises" from the conglomerate of its multiple television channels. RECUR's role is to design and develop the NFTs so that buyers can collect and resell them as digital products and collectibles. They announced in the statement that the collections would be launched in spring 2022.

Developments

On October 13th, 2021, news outlet Variety^[2] released an article titled "SpongeBob Digital Collectibles Coming? ViacomCBS Jumps on NFT Bandwagon." The article cited the press release announced that morning and speculated that among the "cherished franchises" that Viacom would be creating NFTs for, SpongeBob SquarePants would most likely be one of them. Variety then posted the article to their Twitter.^[3] The tweet (shown below) received 47 likes and 218 quote tweets in less than an hour.

In subsequent quote tweets and replies to Variety's tweet, Twitter users began posting memes and reacting to the news. For example, Twitter^[4] user @Bumbles1593 was the first to surface an old meme made about Nickelodeon defiling SpongeBob creator Stephen Hillenburg's grave (shown below, left). Twitter^[5] user @WhiteBearCommu1 also resurfaced a tweet from Twitter^[6] user @Crimson_Mayhem_ who tweeted on May 20th, 2021, "If Viacom or Nickelodeon ever even dare go for making SpongeBob NFTs, this will be the only time to unironically use this image without being called out." His tweet (shown below, right) received roughly 2,500 likes over the course of five months.

Twitter user @DaxterFlaxter also resurfaced^[7] an old tweet^[8] of his that he posted on April 27th, 2021, that included a photoshopped tweet from @Spongebob saying they were going to release an NFT collection. The tweet (shown below, left) received 24 likes over six months. His quote of Variety's tweet (shown below, right) received 12 likes in less than an hour.

On October 13th, 2021, multiple Twitter users posted memes about the possible collection. For instance, Twitter^[9] account @RealYouTubeKids posted a meme using the Mr. Krabs' 'I Like Money' template. The tweet received 375 likes in one hour. Other users^[10]^[11] posted tweets about SpongeBob's agenda of environmental activism and the irony therein of them creating NFTs, which are contentious among some for concerns over potential climate impacts.