CP+B L.A. launched a new campaign for PayPal-owned payment app Venmo featuring YouTube sneaker reviewer/”influencer” (ugh) Brad Hall.
“Normally I talk about cool shoes,” says Hall, in his trademark deadpan, at the beginning of the spot, “Today I’m talking about something even more important than cool shoes: how to buy cool shoes with Venmo.” Hall’s Venmo review continues for some two and a half minutes, with things getting a bit suggestive when he talks about the app’s push notification feature. “The push notification and I, we have a fun relationship,” he says. “I touch it, it responds, we could do this all day long.”
Hall is so excited about the app, he can’t help breaking into song.
While fans of Hall’s deadpan humor will likely find plenty to enjoy here, other views may be left wondering who the hell this guy is and what exactly is going on. That’s not entirely to the spot’s disadvantage, as Hall’s awkwardness provides a nice contrast with his apparent enthusiasm for the app, allowing him to deliver an enthusiastic endorsement that’s part of the humor, as he casually mixes in such ridiculous “features” as the app “fitting all the way inside a smart phone.” The schtick wears thin by the end of the spot, however, as the approach would have been better served by a more concise format. In addition to the launch tutorial, the campaign will in fact feature several shorter videos, which presumably also feature Hall’s deadpan enthusiasm.
“When CP&B LA, an advertising agency in L.A., approached me about doing an #ad for Venmo I was initially skeptical,” Hall said in a statement. “I make unboxing videos about cool shoes. Not cool apps. But then I heard how cool the new Venmo app was and I realized that it was cooler than cool shoes because it lets you buy cool shoes using Venmo. I told CP+B LA that I’d like to unbox this application so the world can know what I now know — the Venmo application is cool. And that was exactly what they wanted me to do in the first place so they said, ‘Yes.’ I told them, ‘Thank you.’ Then they said, ‘Thank you.’ Then I said, ‘Please tell Venmo thank you too.’ And we kept going back and forth like that for what felt like forever but was only 30 minutes.”