Five unexpected faces of financial products

Pensions trust NOW: Pensions has signed up presenter and reality TV star Stacey Solomon, to educate young people about workplace pensions.

Its research shows that nearly three in five young people don't even know what a workplace pension is, and seven in ten say they don't understand the jargon.

In an attempt to put things right - and pick up some business - it's hired Stacey to help make things clear.

"You wouldn't necessarily expect to see the words Stacey Solomon and auto enrolment together, but when we thought about the campaign and the focus – making complex subjects simple and easy to understand – we knew that Stacey would be the perfect fit," says the firm.

And she's not the unlikeliest famous face to front a campaign for a financial product: we look at a few of the others.

Iggy Pop
Back in 2009, the pop star became the face of Swiftcover insurance, gyrating on a TV ad and declaring "I got it Swiftcovered. I got insurance on my insurance!"

But it turned out that perhaps Iggy hadn't been the best person to choose. As several viewers complained to the Advertising Standards Authority, Swiftcover's policies specifically excluded musicians, its policy was changed.

Snoop Dogg
Two years ago, MoneySuperMarket signed up rapper Snoop Dogg for an ad for its price comparison services. "Save money, feel epic," he declared. However, some might say he's not always been the best role model, with arrests for drugs, vandalism and possession of guns - he was even banned from the UK for a while.

Kerry Katona
Kerry Katona's stint as the face of payday lender Cash Lady was doomed from the start. The first ad in the series was banned for targeting vulnerable people, and had to be reshot. But things really went wrong when the star filed for bankruptcy a second time - not the image Cash Lady wanted to promote.

Martin Clunes
For nearly a year, the Men Behaving Badly and Doc Martin star featured in television adverts for Chruchill Insurance, alongside the company's trademark nodding dog. However, when he was caught speeding and lost his licence, his endorsement didn't look quite so valuable, and he was dropped from the ads.

Sir Anthony Hopkins
Starring in a Barclays ad wasn't Anthony Hopkins's best career move: it coincided with mass branch closures across England and Wales. Criticised for his part in the ad campaign, he commented: "I just have to set the record straight by saying that I do not run Barclays. I made a commercial back in June."