The humble mangelwurzel and Timothée Chalamet have as much in common as haute couture and a burlap sack. The Victorian-era root vegetable, nicknamed the “root of scarcity,” is best known for feeding livestock and humans during famines. Meanwhile, the movie star is as ubiquitous as a pre-roll ad and probably more expensive to cast.
The pair is now arriving in theaters across the U.S., but with Chalamet playing himself–without a guitar (Bob Dylan), Gom Jabbar (Dune), or golden ticket (Wonka) in hand.
Chalamet stars in a new campaign for Cash App, set in a grocery where iron ingots and cowrie shells are the common currency. The two-minute ad, “Heirloom,” premiered in theaters over the weekend ahead of the new Superman movie. It will also appear before screenings of The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Clad in a black tank top, Chalamet saunters through the aisles of a tiny grocery store specializing in rare vegetables. Holding a cucumber, he asks if the items are really as rare as advertised. The store owner assures him, explaining one item’s seeds “were scattered by hand in volcanic soil and washed in spring water and dried in linen sheets.”
Cash App’s campaign is a reflection on money, innovation, and the “difficulties of sometimes changing old habits,” said Cash App chief marketing officer Catherine Ferdon. It also aims to address the ways different generations think about money while promoting Cash App’s suite of financial products, she added.
“The film is this quiet meditation on the changing nature of technology and how finances can be a stressful and somewhat overwhelming topic that often divides us, especially between generations,” Ferdon said. “It also hits home on the awkwardness and the shame that often results from talking about money.”
In one scene, the grocery owner and his teenage son (played by Didi star Izaac Wang) argue over updating the store’s payment options. As Chalamet stands between them holding a massive mangelwurzel, Wang’s character says things would be “a lot easier if we bank through the Cash App instead of, you know, livestock or salts or whatever.”
Cash App has been known as a peer-to-peer payment platform, but Ferdon said it aims to “help shift the perception away from stodgy financial institutions” and promote the platform for managing other parts of a person’s entire financial life. The brand’s goal is to spark conversations about the importance of financial literacy across all age groups, she said.
The ad’s “art-forward” approach leans into its theater placement, Ferdon explained. Chalamet co-produced and scripted it alongside his handpicked collaborators, directors Aidan Zamiri and Elijah Bynum.