Radiohead give “Videotape” to Shelter's House of Cards advert

Radiohead have let Shelter, the British housing and homelessness charity, use “Videotape” from In Rainbows free of charge in a television advert launched on 10 February. The campaign is called House of Cards. In Rainbows has a song called “House of Cards” too, but it was “Videotape” the band gave.

In a statement the band say they have always been supporters of Shelter. 'Videotape' is the perfect track to support the ad so we decided to let Shelter use it in their new ad in the hope that it will help make a real impact.¹

The film, made by the agency Leo Burnett, looks out from a moving train over an inner city where many of the houses are built of playing cards, and they fall down as the train goes by. The actress Samantha Morton, who was once homeless herself, reads the voiceover. Posters in Underground stations, shopping centres and coach stations carry the same message, about rising costs that trap people in bad homes and push them into homelessness.

The band had already made a gift in America. Uncut reported on 16 February that they had cleared “MK 1”, an instrumental from the second disc of In Rainbows, free for a short film by the National Coalition for the Homeless, because they thought the cause worth it. The film, “It Can Happen to Anyone”, had been out since January; Stereogum wrote it up on 12 January.