Campbell's first public appearance came aged 7 in February 1978 when she was cast as a pupil to appear in a music video for Bob Marley's song Is This Love?. In 1982, she appeared in another music video, this time as a tap dancer for Culture Club's I'll Tumble 4 Ya. At age 15 and while still a student at the Italia Conti Academy, Campbell was spotted by Beth Boldt, a former Ford model and head of the Synchro model agency, while window-shopping in Covent Garden. Campbell soon opted to become a fulltime model, signing with Elite Model Management. Although Campbell started her career as a catwalk model, she was quickly hired for various high-profile advertising campaigns, including Lee Jeans and Olympus Corporation, which introduced her to the American market. Campbell also completed campaigns for Ralph Lauren and Francois Nars. At age 15 in April 1986, Campbell appeared on the cover of Elle, replacing a model who had canceled out of the appearance. In August 1988, she appeared on the cover of Vogue Paris as that publication's first black cover girl. In addition to Vogue Paris, Campbell also became the first black model to appear on the cover of Vogue UK, Vogue Nippon and Time magazine. She has also posed nude for Playboy and appeared in Madonna's 1992 book Sex, in a set of photos with Madonna and rapper Big Daddy Kane. In total, Campbell has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers. She famously starred in George Michael's music video Freedom! '90, where she lip-synched to his song along with fellow supermodels Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford and Tatjana Patitz. In 1992, Campbell appeared in Madonna's music video for Erotica, which featured filmed footage from photoshoots for the book Sex. In addition to the previously mentioned music videos, Campbell has appeared in videos for artists such as Michael Jackson, Nelly, Jagged Edge, Jay-Z, P.Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G, Macy Gray, Prince and Usher.