‘The Brave don’t live forever,
but the cautious don’t live at all’

This was our very first conversation with Scott Wilson (AKA Drag Queen Rougie) a few weeks ago, when he agreed to help us promote Barley House Agency with one of our most daring stunts to date – to take a rush hour train from sleepy Cuffley, Hertfordshire into Euston dressed as a flamboyant diva; flame red ringlet wig, high heels and a short blue floaty number. Did we mention the megaphone? The resulting footage (including lots of hilarious out-takes) is a sight to behold. But if we thought our brave campaign was nerve wracking, Scott’s experience was off the scale, ‘it’s fine being Rougie at the club, on Friday nights, with my friends, but this is different – really brave for me – but I love it and I love getting a reaction and shaking things up’. We couldn’t put it better ourselves, as it’s exactly what we do for our clients at Barley House Agency.

First things first, we needed to get plenty of photography that could be retouched and put up live on social media channels the day of the brand activation. Thankfully our talented students at Elstree UTC were able to step in at the eleventh hour to give us their make-up department, photography studio, lighting and video team.

‘It gave us a chance to spread the ‘knowledge’, and get the college working on a live brief, for a real campaign, with real agency creatives’ says Creative Director Andy Morton ‘they were very enthusiastic, professional and gave us some brilliant results’.

The day of the brand activation came – hours of intense make-up, a fast car to the station, interview to camera, then off into ‘town’ for fun and games. The astonished reactions from morning commuters were hilarious. Barley House Agency’s production gurus Sarah Wright and Kat Frost were her chaperones, busy filming and tweeting as they went.

‘It was all a bit mad’ says Dan O’Connell Art Director ‘very tight deadlines and no room for error at all, timing was critical from end to end – I know the team were utterly exhausted, but the result was amazing and Rougie was wonderful, a real performer’.

You can see Rougie’s DRAGUMENTARY below