Ever fancied carving our a career as a government spy? Not just any government, but the same one that employs James Pond, Harry Palmer and Alec Leamas? Yes, the British Government!
A new advertising campaign focused on a number of popular online games is set to help our spy-masters at MI5 and MI6 reach 'an internet-savvy generation of graduates' – the first time such a campaign has been run in the online gaming sphere.
If you fancy yourself as the next real-life Zafar Younis, and if you are a fan of Electronic Arts' Need for Speed Carbon, Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas, Splinter Cell Double Agent, or Activision's Enemy Territory: Quake Wars then you may well soon be seeing these government ads (pictured here) tempting you to work for GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters - the centre for Her Majesty's Government's Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) activities).
GCHQ's recruitment campaign is running via the Microsoft-owned, in-game advertising firm Massive's network of games, with the tag-line "Careers in British Intelligence"... no comment really.
"Although press advertising still plays an important role it's now just one element of an integrated approach to recruitment that forward-thinking clients like GCHQ are spearheading," said Kate Clemens, the head of GCHQ's digital strategy at recruitment and communications specialist TMP Worldwide.
The whole thing reminds SPOnG of the 1996 hit Michael Gambon movie, Toys.