Revolut Spain has just launched a customer acquisition campaign that is, to say the least, provocative, starring Luís Figo in a storyline Spaniards are unlikely to forget.
“Money obviously matters,” says the former Portuguese footballer in the advert, in a rather suggestive invitation for Spaniards to switch banks.
Across the streets of several cities, Figo also appears on billboards carrying the slogan: “Do it for your money. Switch to Revolut” — a message sure to raise a knowing smile among anyone familiar with the player’s history in Spain.
The campaign is going viral on social media, putting Figo back under intense media scrutiny some 26 years after his controversial transfer from FC Barcelona to arch-rivals Real Madrid CF.
At the time, it was the most expensive transfer in football history, costing the Madrid club more than €60 million and triggering deep disappointment and outrage in Catalonia, where Figo had been regarded as one of Barça’s greatest idols.
His returns to Camp Nou wearing the famous white shirt remain etched in football folklore. Figo was booed, jeered and branded a sell-out — or, as Spaniards put it, a pesetero — accused of switching sides for money.
Now, Figo is back with a similar message for Spaniards: do what he did in 2000 — switch for the money.