Barclaycard: advert-body-1

As part of Barclaycards ‘Start Today’ campaign, the bank has teamed together with the rapper Nadia Rose. The fairy-tale inspired ad aims to encourage people to get started on things that matter most to them.

The move to include the self-made rapper in the multi-channel campaign allows the bank to tap into a new fanbase that follow her music, while her first-hand narrative imbues the initiative with a genuine outlook on what Barclaycard members can achieve.

Croydon-born Rose is a perfect fit to front a campaign that aims to help people realise their potential, as she demonstrates what hard work can achieve, and that the world doesn’t just hand out success on a plate.

The short film, which uses a combination of animated and real-life footage, unfolds like a modern-day fairy-tale.

Like all good fairy-tales, it opens with a storybook that reads “Once upon a time there was a girl who dreamed of being a rapper…”

Paralleling the story of many folklore maidens before, that sat around waiting for good fortune to come to them, the narrator professes that “dreams are magical things made of wishing and waiting.”

In tune with the campaign's message to not sit around waiting for the world to begin, frustrated Rose disrupts the animation, proclaiming: “Enough of wishing and waiting, my story ain’t playing out that way. This is how my story is gonna go…”

The story then leaves the pages of the storybook, and steps through the threshold to reality outside.

Rose and her entourage proceed to move through the streets dancing, with the rapper’s quick-witted lyrics enthusing Barclaycard’s messaging on the chorus: ‘Let’s take action, make it happen.’