Considering the scorn with which the banking industry is generally viewed, it makes sense that many banks often use their ads to project a kinder, more human side to the public. By that same token, Britain's Barclays infuses the new campaign for its Family Springboard home mortgages with a trait not often associated with finance: humor.
The idea behind the Family Springboard mortgage is that parents can put savings toward their children's mortgages and get that money back three years later, with interest. To illustrate how this might come in handy, BBH London created this witty spot called "You vs. Unconditional Love," which tells the story of a father and his (rather demanding) little girl.
It all begins (says narrator Jim Broadbent) with the arrival of a "tiny little parasitic bundle of joy," also known as a baby girl. Soon enough, she's enamored with dolls, but quickly throws those aside and demands that her father get her a bike. Then she wants a horse, then a car, and eventually a house. (As the narrator reminds us, if you don't give your children what they want, it's because you don't love them enough.) How can Dad help out his daughter without going broke himself? The answer, of course, is to get a Barclays Family Springboard mortgage!
In the end, the loving father has gotten his money back from the mortgage, apparently with enough interest to buy himself a new convertible. And because what goes around comes around, his daughter now has a little parasite of her own.
CREDITS
Client: Barclays
Agency: BBH, London
BBH Creative Directors: David Kolbusz, Dominic Goldman
BBH Executive Creative Director: Nick Gill
BBH Producer: Ruben Mercadal
BBH Strategic Business Lead: Neil Small
BBH Strategy Director: Debra Ladd
BBH Team Director: George Scotland
Production Company: Smuggler
Director: Guy Shelmerdine
Executive Producer: Fergus Brown
Producer: Gustav Geldenhuys
Director of Photography: Martin Ruhe
Postproduction: The Mill
Sound Design: Factory
Music: Mutato
Animation: Passion Pictures