BRAND OFFERS THEIR WORK EXPERIENCE ‘BOY’ AS A COMPETITION PRIZE
In recent weeks, Graduate Fog has noted an unsettling trend for thoughtless brands treating youth unemployment — including graduate unemployment — as a bit of a giggle. (The BBC appears to be turning it into a gameshow).
The latest example comes from Frijj — Dairy Crest’s milkshake brand — who are currently offering their customers the chance to “Win Warren, our work experience boy.” Apparently, “He’ll do anything you want him to!” — including picking up dog poo.
Competition winners will enjoy Warren’s company for a day, during which he will be obliged to complete any task they give him (“within reason and the law”).
Here are just some of the tasks that “Warren the work experience boy” completed this month:
– Painting a woman’s nails
– Taking old furniture to the dump
– Picking up dog poo
– Carrying a woman’s handbag
– Making cups of tea
– Mowing the lawn
– Walking the dog
– Washing someone’s car
– Painting a garden fence
– Making sandwiches
– Feeding ducks in a park wearing a giant duck costume
Am I having a sense of humour failure — or is this seriously unfunny? At a time when one in five young people is unemployed in the UK — and over 100,000 of you will work as unpaid interns this year, often performing menial tasks and errands that teach you nothing — I’m afraid I’m missing the joke. So I emailed Frijj:
From: Tanya de Grunwald
To: Frijj Press Office
Date: 14th June 2011
Subject: Press comment about your “Win Warren” campaignHi there,
My name is Tanya de Grunwald and I run a website for job-seeking graduates, called Graduate Fog.
I am writing regarding the “Win Warren” marketing campaign you are currently running at Frijj.
There is great concern among my users that too many young workers are not being treated with respect and dignity they deserve – and that their ‘internships’ or ‘work experience placements’ too often involve nothing more than a collection of menial tasks and errands which teach them nothing.
In light of this, your “Win Warren” campaign is likely to hit the wrong note with them, as Frijj appears to think that the humiliation of a young worker is funny or entertaining (and you seem confident that your customers will share this view). This is made worse by the fact that presumably the goal behind the campaign is to sell more Frijj milkshakes, so in effect Frijj could be seen to be using Warren’s humiliation to boost your profits. In the video I watched, Warren was asked to make a winner a drink, clean his car and carry out menial garden chores.
What is your response to this complaint?
And can you at least confirm that Warren is paid for his work?
With thanks
Tanya
Frijj responded:
To: Tanya de Grunwald”
From: Frijj
Date: Wednesday, 15 June, 2011, 13:30
Subject: Re: Press comment about your “Win Warren” campaignDear Ms de Grunwald
We’re sorry that our recent promotional campaign for FRijj – Win Warren -has caused offence.
This is a light-hearted, ‘tongue in cheek’ campaign that is meant to entertain and in no way offend any of our consumers. Warren is a paid actor and the activities that he has undertaken have all been supervised to ensure that he was entirely comfortable with anything he was asked to do.
This campaign was researched thoroughly with our consumers before launch, and it was seen as being a good fit with a fun brand that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It was never our intention to make fun of graduates, which is why we have never referred to Warren as a recent graduate in any of our communications. Instead we have focused on Warren as a generic work experience boy working on a fun, quirky brand. Consumer responses online and on Facebook have been very positive amongst our core target market of 15-24 year old males. The campaign is due to come to an end on June 30th, but we sincerely apologise if the activity caused you or any of your graduates offence, which was never our intention.
I hope this goes some way towards allaying your concerns – thank you for bringing them to our attention.
Regards
[NAME WITHHELD]
Corporate Communications
What do you make of that?
I’m pleased that Frijj have apologised — it’s more than most brands do when we confront them! But I’m still tripping over the way she referred to him again as the work experience ‘boy’, even after I spelled out our concerns that young workers aren’t being treated respectfully. I’m also not convinced she really ‘gets’ what I meant. While Graduate Fog is a website for university graduates, I certainly wasn’t saying that treating young people without degrees like this was acceptable either.
As for her assertion that men aged 15-24 have found this marketing campaign hilarious, are you as puzzled as I am? If Frijj’s customers really do find this funny, is it possible that it’s because they are closer to 15 than 24 and haven’t yet faced the horror of the jobs market for themselves? Because I find it hard to imagine that anybody who has worked as an unpaid intern will be splitting their sides when they see this.
*Are Frijj comedy geniuses — or playground bullies?
Is the idea of winning a work experience ‘boy’ funny? Are you disappointed that a young brand like Frijj could get this so wrong? Or is it just a bit of fun?
It isn’t funny to me, but nor is it really offensive to me, the layout of the site is lighthearted but childish and it is quite clear that the young man involved is either an actor or a work experience person who would really like some media exposure.
Nevertheless, if this campaign is successful, I wouldn’t be surprised if we do find campaigns that are more offensive than this one. Dairy Crest have explained themselves, apologised and covered all their bases.
Although I do find his CV to be a little bit tasteless regarding non graduate NEETS
http://www.frijj.co.uk/assets/downloads/warren-fox.pdf
but considering the market their aiming at 15-24 males, it seems that they’re advertising to the same demographic they are mocking.
Do ask them exactly HOW they thoroughly researched the campaign among consumers beforehand, because if it was just asking their mates in the pub then it’s a pretty empty claim.
I think this is fine in light of the fact it is a paid actor. Maybe calling him a work experience boy was where they went wrong. If it was just male slave for the day… but would this then be classed as objectifying some? What would happen if the “slave” was female? Would that be worse? I do not find this offensive because he is a paid actor and when I was acting I would have taken on something like that as a bit of fun and for some extra money!
I’ve been scratching my head about this too… I guess what jars with me is the sense that the work experience ‘boy’ somehow belongs to Frijj, so they have the right to lend him out to other people (their customers) as a ‘prize’. Apart from Warren seeming cheerful enough in the videos, we don’t get any sense that he really wants to do this (who wants to pick up a stranger’s dog’s poo?) – we’re just told “He’ll do anything you want him to”. I think it’s this sense of ownership from them coupled with the necessity for Warren to submit his dignity entirely to the process which makes me feel a bit queasy… I think the whole thing just seems a bit degrading.
Would you feel it was okay to ‘lend’ your cleaner to a friend like this for a day, telling them “she’ll do anything you want her to”? What if your friend then asked your cleaner to pick up their dog’s poo? Would that be okay?
PS Not that I have a cleaner! : (
Maybe I’ve had a humour bypass but it seems to me absolutely to devalue the idea of work experience by redefining it as a form of meaningless, arbitrary activity. Tasteless.
I don’t really have a problem with this – i can see your point about devaluing work experience to an extent, but if you watch the videos, the work experience guy does some cool stuff too – going on funfair rides, surfing etc.
Notice how you didn’t pull these out as examples of his ‘slave labour’…
Why don’t you offer a counter – eg – but these are some of the funny or interesting things that he did – and then list them… Might make it a bit more balanced?
Ah yes, that’s all good experience for the world of work 😉
The CV is incongruous with what they expect their slave Warren to do. Presumably he is a plumber (see apprentice on the cv) and is 24 years old. What skilled tradesman would condescend to pick up dog poo for ‘work experience’? Work experience is a term associated with 15 year olds. Let them just try and ask a 15 year old to pick up poo! It’s not even funny in a random way. Why go to all this artifice to make a poor parody of a nonsensical cv. Is having normal jobs supposed to be considered funny by their target demographic?
Whether people agree with this puerile campaign or not it gives out worrying messages about what is deemed acceptable in the elusive hunt for paid work these days. It depicts the young, useless worker trope. Someone too useless to be paid; someone who deserves to be demeaned. Someone who has to be willing to do anything to earn a job.
I kinda agree with Hugh about balance.
You said “As for her assertion that men aged 15-24 have found this marketing campaign hilarious,” what they actually said was “Consumer responses online and on Facebook have been very positive amongst our core target market of 15-24 year old males.” They didn’t use the word hilarious whatsoever.
Would you feel it was okay to ‘lend’ your cleaner to a friend like this for a day, telling them “she’ll do anything you want her to”? – NO but then a cleaner isn’t engaged to perform work on that basis, whereas this actor clearly is and was.
PS. Please correct the typo in your subtitle “BRAND OFFERS THEIR WORK EXPRIENCE ‘BOY’ AS A COMPETITION PRIZE”
@Pete Jenkinson
Thanks for pointing out the typo in the subtitle – I’m afraid that without an unpaid intern to proof my copy for me (!) they sometimes slip through the net!
Re your point about the cleaner – we didn’t know that ‘Warren’ was an actor until we contacted the Frijj press office, so I still think it gives the general impression that they are lending out their intern as if he belongs to them. So I think my comparison with the cleaner is still valid. I am not saying that the actor was mislead or mistreated by Frijj in any way – I assume he was aware of what the job involved when he agreed to it.
@Pete Jenkinson @Hugh Darbyshire
I take your point about balance I have no plans to amend the rest of the text in this post. This is a blog for job-seeking graduates, so everything I write is written from their point of view, and mine. I have never pretended to be trying to rival the BBC for balance and accuracy! (hence the typos too) I hope you will forgive Graduate Fog for being a bit rough-around-the-edges – I actually think that’s one of our biggest strengths!
I agree with Tanya about balance. People choose to read blogs because they are interested in a particular discussion topic and/or have an outlook on it which they want to be reinforced. I wouldn’t bother about it if GF was ‘balanced’ i.e. defending the reasons why employers may be driven to exploit young people
I think there is a clear difference between balance, slant and getting your facts correct.
To label something ‘hilarious’ when in the previous sentence you’ve quoted what was said as being entirely different is not a misjudgement of balance, its patently misleading, inaccurate and libellous. Just a thought.
PS. Opinion is fine, providing its not extrapolating wildly.
I know the point of blogs are to generate debate, and they should have an opinion – but totally ignoring the other side of the argument – or in this case, all the fun things that the work experience person did, is just a bit wrong i think.
Tanya – i think you should amend the ‘hilarious’ bit… think Frijj’s email was pretty considered – its hard to take the rest of the piece seriously when you sensationalise their response so much…
@Hugh Darbyshire @Pete Jenkinson
Thanks for your views but I’m not planning to amend anything further in this post.
Frijj said:
…and since this is a humorous campaign, it surely follows that they found it funny. If she had said they found it ‘positive’ – i would have assumed they found it ‘funny.’ But she actually said the response was ‘very positive’ – so I don’t think it’s ‘extrapolating wildly’ to say they found it ‘hilarious’. I have not quoted her saying they found it ‘hilarious’ – as I agree that would have been inaccurate.
@Joddle – thanks for your kind words! And I agree that a large part of why GF works is because of our strong ‘voice.’
@anonymoustom – I agree that it’s tasteless…
@Jamie B – Does it make a difference that we didn’t know Warren was a paid actor until we did some digging? The point is that Frijj have presented him as their work experience ‘boy’ – not as an actor pretending to be their work experience boy… I still feel it is pretty distasteful.
@Boz – I too am interested in how they researched this. I still can’t believe that young people think this is funny!
@Nick Marshall – sorry what do you find tasteless about Warren’s CV?
@Hugh Darbyshire
I also think the fact that Warren got to do some fun stuff too is completely irrelevant to the discussion here – that’s why I didn’t mention it. Oh dear, looks like we’ll have to agree to differ on this one!
Thanks Tanya,
and in that spirit of accuracy, I find your responses equally hilarious.
I’m 25, near their campaign target, and I didn’t find it funny at all.
I like the way they try and make out they ran the campaign “to entertain” when of course, their real reason was to make money. Which is fair enough -its their job- but they don’t need to pretend they are trying to make us smile.
I’m sorry, but this is actually quite funny. Grow a sense of humour and stop being so po-faced.
Tanya has her own financial / career reasons for whipping up hysteria about these issues – ie. to sell more copies of her book. Do you really think that because you have graduated from a university that you are special? Time to wake up and smell the coffee. The number of young people going to university is approaching 50%. You are the norm. Just because you were stupid enough to believe the previous government’s spiel about walking straight out of Uni into a highly paid, professional job, doesn’t mean you deserve my sympathy. Earn my respect and that of my colleagues and you might just get along here.
Now make me a coffee. No, NOT instant! Make it in a cafetiere and with frothy milk. Oh, you have a 2:1 in Sociology, do you? I really don’t give a shiny shit.
@John
Thanks for commenting – and you are perfectly within your rights to disagree with anything written on Graduate Fog – in fact, we love a good row!
However, I just wanted to set you straight about my motivations for ‘whipping up hysteria’ about this sort of thing… and assure you that I am not getting rich for doing this! I make about 25p per book I sell (so that’s £25 for every 100 books)
I have been working on Graduate Fog alongside (my paid journalism work) since April 2010, and I can tell you there must be easier ways to make a quick buck! I have always been 100% transparent that it is my hope that Graduate Fog will grow enough for me to do it full-time, which means that yes, I will need to start making money from it at some point. At the moment, it looks like the most likely way of doing this will be from the job board, where recruiters can advertise their roles for free, but if any Graduate Foggers get the job, I get a little introduction fee for connecting the two of you. This does not come out of the new starter’s salary, it is an additional fee from the employer.
Hope that clarifies things a little? I’ve had a few questions about my motivations for running Graduate Fog recently, so I think I’ll write a little update in the About Graduate Fog section of the site, so that it’s clearer for new users.
Thanks again for commenting
Tanya
@John
This is exactly the kind of attitude that really gets on the tits of graduates. Why do you feel it is acceptable for interns to be treated as sub-workers? When they are actually taking your work load off of you. You may argue that interns require a lot more work and supervision, when in fact when left to a project graduates are so eager to impress that they will often produce better results than the full-time worker.
I graduated a few years ago, with my shiny 2:1 in the first year of top-up fees. I was actively encouraged to go to university by my sixth form, who did not suggest alternatives. It was just assumed. So forgive me to feel a bit miffed to discover that upon graduating into a recession and a lack of job opportunities. 5/6 years previously, when choosing my A-Levels and also then being told by EVERYONE, from teachers, to friends to parents and even the government that I should be going to uni.
I now have 2 years experience in my role and am earning a reasonable OTE but poor basic. It would be good to find where you are? Are you one of those 30+ something middle management types who sit back and count the money? It would be good to understand where you are coming from to feel you can comment on the issue with such distain.