Barclaycard is calling time on one of the UK’s best-loved
advertising campaigns with its last commercial starring Rowan
Atkinson.
The ad - the 17th in the six-year series by BMP DDB - shows Atkinson as
the hapless secret agent, Latham, finally learning to love his
Barclaycard. The rest of the campaign has been built around his
reluctance to use the card, despite his sidekick Bough’s
protestations.
The 90-second finale opens with Latham being instructed on what he is
warned could be his final mission - to capture Eduardo ’the Eel’
Valasquez.
Unsurprisingly, he fails his assignment and is forced into hiding,
bleaching his hair and adopting a new identity to escape the pursuit of
MI7.
When the British agents finally catch up with him in a restaurant,
Latham is forced to do something that will prove beyond a shadow of a
doubt that he is not the man they seek. With a flourish, he takes out
his Barclaycard to pay for his meal, throwing his pursuers off the
scent. The film ends with Latham kissing his Barclaycard in joy.
The commercial was written and art directed by Paul Burke and directed
by Mark Chapman through Tiger Aspect. It will break on 1 November.
Barclaycard’s new strategy is due to be revealed shortly but is being
kept firmly under wraps until then. John Laidlaw, head of communications
and advertising at Barclaycard, said: ’We know there will now be all
sorts of spies checking out the theme for our next campaign - and they
will not have long to wait.’
Atkinson said: ’All good things come to an end and it was the mutual
wish of myself and Barclaycard to bring the present campaign to a close
as it seemed to us it had reached the end of its natural life. I think
this last commercial is a fitting end.’
