‘Ebenezer’ Creates a Real Venmo Profile for Scrooge, Which Hands Out Money and Accepts It, Too
Paramount has created a public Venmo profile for Ebenezer Scrooge to promote Ti West’s upcoming film, starring Johnny Depp. The account plays on Scrooge’s reputation for miserliness: people requesting money receive only a penny, while the profile also appears to accept payments from the public.
Two Variety staffers encountered an error when they tried to request money, but a source close to the campaign said the account had become temporarily jammed by the volume of requests and was being fixed. The destination of payments sent to Scrooge is unclear. “Ebenezer”, based on Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, is due in cinemas on 13 November and features a cast including Rupert Grint, Daisy Ridley and Ian McKellen.
In short
- Paramount launched a Venmo profile for Scrooge to promote “Ebenezer”.
- Requests for money reportedly get a one-penny reply.
- It is unclear where payments made to the profile go.
Explained simply
Venmo is a mobile service that lets people send and request money. Ebenezer Scrooge is the central character in Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”, a wealthy man known for refusing to spend money until he is changed by a series of supernatural visits.
Paramount is promoting a forthcoming film based on the story, directed by Ti West and starring Johnny Depp as Scrooge. The campaign’s public Venmo profile plays on the character’s reputation by giving people who request money a penny, while appearing to let the public send money to it as well.
The story is familiar to many readers and has been adapted for stage and screen, so Scrooge is widely recognised beyond the original book. The profile has drawn attention because it turns that fictional character into part of a real money-transfer service, though it is unclear where payments sent to the account go.
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