Everyone Hates the Venmo Ad Campaign

If you're in New York, perhaps you've seen the out-of-home campaign for Venmo, an app that makes it easy to send money to a friend. It features Lucas (who actually works at Venmo) staring off into space with copy that doesn't say much.

Copy includes, "Lucas buys a round" and "Lucas uses Venmo" and "Lucas takes the stairs" and Lucas has dreams." The ads don't explain Venmo which in and of itself is a worthy tactic with the aim of getting people curious enough to find out for themselves.

But it would seem there is an outright wave of hatred for this campaign if you check Twitter and various blog comments.

One can, of course, argue the approach was intentional. Launch a lame campaign, get people talking about it, get free publicity. Which is exactly what's happening.

Or, if you're ad guy John Laramie, you might say, "Who the fuck is Lucas? I should give a fuck that Lucas likes magic? Oh wait, I like magic, so maybe I'll like Lucas, which means then I should try Venmo? Oh my god, I ride subways too, just like Lucas! Let me go Google Venmo when I get off this train. Maybe it's a subway app?"

Or if you're Steve Hall who publishes Adrants, you might say, "Who the fuck cares. It's just a stupid app. Move along people."