The blogosphere and news sites are all talking about a great new marketing stunt from Queensland Tourism Department. The ‘Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef’ is a newly created position and billed as the Best Job in the World (no arguments there). Since the announcement, its website has had four million hits, crashed several times and received 2,000 60-second video applications.
The agency behind the awesome idea, Cummins Nitro, has come under flak now for admitting that a video, supposedly that of an ‘applicant’ for the job, is the digital project manager at the agency. Oops! Advertising is anyway considered to be the bottom of the barrel when it comes to careers. This kind of ‘cheating’ will only further that notion. Nevertheless, the response for the job is unlikely to reduce because of this glitch. After all, the job responsibility includes: Explore and report back, Feed the fish, Clean the pool and Collect the mail. Are you game?
2 Comments
“Advertising is anyway considered to be the bottom of the barrel when it comes to careers.”
OK, I never knew this. Is this something you realised with experience? In fact most people I know feel that those in the ad world have all the fun.
Could you please explain?
I personally do believe that when all the lawyers reach the gates of hell they will be surprised that hell is ruled by the ad people.
@Hecklar, OK, I may have exaggerated but the general perception is that advertising makes people buy things they don’t want to and advertising people are in the business of ‘make believe’. Yes there are lots of people clamouring to get in (reduced over time, perhaps) and it’s seen as a fun profession. But there is uncertainty on what exactly we do and several other professions are considered ‘nobler’. Care to comment, anyone?