Back Market Founder Swears on His Mother's Life

If you're not satisfied with the company's quality guarantee, her stuff could be yours

Valerie, the mother of Back Market founder Thibaud Hug de Larauze, has a lot to lose. She might forfeit all of her worldly possessions if her son’s global tech refurbishing company doesn’t live up to its quality guarantee.

That concept drops today from Mother London (nice mom synergy!) and director Harold Einstein.

The spot below lays out the premise: “We promise every phone is expertly refurbished and tested. In fact, we don’t just promise, we swear on our moms’ lives. This is our founder, and this is his mom, Valerie. And if we ever break our promise, Valerie’s life is yours.”

A team with clipboards starts noting all the items in her house: plants, picture frames, frying pans, food, pillows, glasses, lots of safety pins, etc.

Valerie asks, “This is a joke, no?”

Thibaud just shrugs. Such a good son.

“We wanted a way to make the Back Market promise impossible to doubt,” de Larauze says. “So, we picked the highest stakes a person can offer. If people remember one thing about Back Market after this, it should be that we don’t make this promise lightly.”

Users are directed to a website where they can make a play for one of Valerie’s possessions, if they can prove Back Market erred. Of course, the bar is exceedingly high. So she won’t be parting with her clothes or cat anytime soon. We think.

“The most powerful thing anyone can do to prove they mean something is stake what they love most on it,” says agency ECD Tom Coleman. 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.”

It’s cute stuff, both instantly relatable yet fresh for the category. It’s jokey, but just real enough to feel grounded. And props to Val—her face positively drips with worry.

The work initially rolls out in New York across TV, VOD, out-of-home, social and audio, with European markets added to the mix in coming weeks.