Mastercard's new television campaign will run on RTE for the next three years with an expected media spend of £0.75 million (€0.95 million). The campaign, which is made up of three ads, features a couple on holiday in India, a scene in a coffee bar and a young girl moving into her first apartment. It was created by McCann Ericsson for worldwide consumption and has already run in the US for the past two years.

Irish consumers are considered to be credit card friendly, even though only 20 per cent to 25 per cent of Irish adults have credit cards, way behind the British figure of 46 per cent. The figure in the US is predictably high, with 75 per cent of all adults carrying plastic. According to Ms Rita Broe, head of marketing for Britain and Ireland, the theme of the campaign - which puts a price on several items but suggests that happiness is priceless - was particularly well received in Ireland, with consumers remarking that it was nice to see a financial company admitting that money cannot buy everything.