Put Una Money for There

1 Jan 1956
Sound
5m

Barclays advise West African farmers where to keep their money via a catchy song and crisp modern cartoon design.

Ba-ba-ba-boom. Ba-ba-ba-boom. Prepare to have a new earworm as it might take a while to get 'The Farmers High-Life' song out of your head. The Larkins Studio were approached to create an ad encouraging West African farmers to keep their harvest money at Barclays DCO (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas). They made a wise choice in approaching Sam Akpabot, a Nigerian student at the Royal College of Music, to provide the story song which holds the film together.

The beat gives the perfect structure for the animation. The sponsors were reportedly somewhat nervous of caricaturing Africans for African audiences but the animators don't shy away from cartooning the farmers, just as they would any other character. The backgrounds also feature some great designs. The ad was a success in West Africa - where the song became a hit - and at the advertising festival at Cannes where it won the Grand Prix. Ba-ba-ba-boom.

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From the collection

Cinema Advertising Comes of Age

The 1930s saw screen advertising find its voice. That wasn't just down to the arrival of the 'talkies', but to the increasing professionalism of ad agencies and production companies.

Through WWII and the postwar austerity years and into the 'never had it so good' 1950s - when it had to compete with the new commercial television service - cinema advertising offered a bigger bang for your advertising buck.