Any pensions professional who caught the latest episode (19 January) of Would I Lie to You (WILTY) probably squealed with excitement to see grime artist Big Zuu as one of the panellists.

Not just for being fans of his excellent rapping skills and TV cooking shows, but because we remember him as the figurehead for the Pension and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) and Association of British Insurers' 2022 Pension Attention campaign.

The industry certainly found him a surprising choice when his partnership with our sector was announced. The unusual juxtaposition of grime and pensions seemed to have also caught the public’s attention.

According to the PLSA, Big Zuu’s involvement in the Pension Attention campaign reached millions of people via TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, train station billboards and national newspaper coverage.

In a campaign awareness survey of members of the public after the engagement season, 19 per cent of respondents said they could recall seeing the campaign – and of those, 91 per cent took action as a result, saying they either spoke about pensions, looked for additional information or engaged with their own pension after seeing it.

So, hopefully many of the public were confidently shouting along that it was true when the panel had to debate whether Big Zuu did indeed write a pensions rap.

Watching the show, I was slightly concerned at first about just how funny the panel and studio audience seemed to find the idea that a young rapper should take an interest in pensions.

The pensions industry continues to spend much time and energy highlighting the importance of saving from a young age, and how everyone from all walks of life needs to think about financing their future retirement – even hybrid rapper/chefs. The last thing we need is the idea reinforced that taking an interest in your future retirement from a young age is embarrassing.

For instance, research from Standard Life in December 2023 found that 23 per cent of those aged 18-24 have never heard of pension auto-enrolment (AE), with only one in 10 vaguely familiar of the concept.

However, the research also found that 42 per cent of the young people who were familiar with AE believed it to be an important stimulant in encouraging people to save. This therefore highlights what a difference awareness can make; the stats are no laughing matter.

Big Zuu initially compounded my fears by being seemingly indifferent to his involvement with the Pension Attention campaign and unable to remember his pensions rap (and being slightly confused as to what the campaign was for, stating it to be for “government pensions”).

He even stated that the campaign was to “take away the stigma of pensions”. However, the ever-sensible David Mitchell was on hand to point out that “people aren’t ashamed of their pensions… my parents are quite pleased they’ve got their pensions and happy to take their pension money and use it to live with”.

Thankfully, Big Zuu was just an excellent liar (a prerequisite for the show!) and when his claim was found to be true, he proved he still remembered his pensions rap by spitting a few bars.

Being involved in the Pensions Attention campaign clearly made a lasting impression on Big Zuu and discussing it in a hilarious manner on a primetime entertainment show has hopefully spurred its viewers to indeed pay their pension some attention.

I would love there to be research on whether my previous sentence is true or false – seeing it asked on a future episode of WILTY may be a wish too far though…

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