Back Market stakes its founder’s mum on refurbished tech
The brand’s first campaign from Mother sees founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze stake his mum’s worldly possessions on the quality of its products, challenging scepticism around refurbished devices
Refurbished tech marketplace Back Market is putting its founder’s credibility – and his mother’s possessions – on the line in a new global campaign promoting The Back Market Promise.
In a new spot created by Mother, founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze swears on his mum’s life that the refurbished tech sold by Back Market is top-notch. So much so that should the quality of its tech fail to live up to that promise, his mother Valérie and every one of her worldly belongings will be handed over to customers.
The tongue-in-cheek campaign has been directed by Harold Einstein. It builds on the brand’s ongoing Let’s End Fast Tech platform, which challenges the consumer electronics industry’s culture of constant upgrades in favour of longer-lasting devices.
Despite growing awareness of e-waste and overconsumption, one of the biggest barriers to buying refurbished tech is often around consumer scepticism on quality. Rather than a clunky show-and-tell approach, the campaign leans into absurd humour, using an unusual personal guarantee to make its case.
“The truth about Back Market’s quality is genuinely remarkable, so the challenge was making people believe it. The most powerful thing anyone can do to prove they mean something is stake what they love most on it,” says Tomas Coleman, executive creative director at Mother.
“Harold understood immediately that the bigger and funnier we went, the more the sincerity underneath would land. That tension between the ridiculous gesture and the real promise is the whole idea.”
Founder-led campaigns have become an increasingly familiar way for brands to project authenticity, but Back Market pushes the trend into more absurd territory by making its founder’s mother the collateral.
The campaign launches first in New York across TV, video-on-demand, out-of-home, social and audio, before rolling out across the UK, US, France, Germany and Spain in August.
Credits:
Agency: Mother
Director: Harold Einstein
Production: Packer Productions