Founded by filmmaker and activist Richard Curtis, Make My Money Matter aims to raise awareness of how we may be inadvertently fuelling climate destruction via the banks and financial institutions we choose to do business with.

Often the links between high street banks – those mentioned in this latest campaign include Barclays, Lloyds, HSBC, Santander, and NatWest – and fossil fuel companies are unknown to customers, a point that Make My Money Matter wants to change.

Starring Ambika Mod, of One Day and This is Going to Hurt fame, this new film directed by Ben Strebel sees the actor appear as a slightly bored sales assistant at a garden centre, serving an array of customers who are purchasing new plants.

Things take a surreal turn with each tap of the card machine, when a plant on the shelves around them bursts into flames. It’s only at the end of the film that it becomes clear this is due to the institutions that the customers are banking with: instead it is suggested they should switch to ‘fossil-free banks’ such as Nationwide, Starling or Triodos Bank.

Mod is the latest big-name star to appear in MMMM’s ads, following recent appearances by Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman in campaigns. In The Hidden Relationship, real-life couple Kit Harington and Rose Leslie starred as a duo in therapy, who turn out to be a high street bank and an oil company exploring their dysfunctional but addictive relationship.

As in that film, this latest spot takes a while to reveal its point, though this intriguing creative approach, plus its use of humour and A-list acting talent, is perhaps more likely to get viewers to take on board MMMM’s mission than a more heavy-handed messaging would do.

“We didn’t want to leave any room for uncertainty regarding the damage investments in the fossil fuel industry by UK high street banks is causing our planet,” says James Ross Edwards, creative director at Mother. “We really hope the film encourages people to reconsider who they’re banking with.”

Credits:
Agency: Mother
Director: Ben Strebel
Production Company: Biscuit Filmworks UK