Aspiring copywriter creates ‘epic’ ad campaign to land a job: ‘the publicity has been incredible’
A psychology grad looking to break into the advertising industry has created an integrated campaign promoting himself as the ideal creative, having been inspired by Dollar Shave Club’s spot ‘Our Blades Are F**king Great’.
Scott G Overend has been attempting to land a job as a London-based copywriter and bring “a passion for creating and exploring ideas” to agency life since he graduated with a degree in psychology last year. However so far, he has experienced little success with job applications.
It was after watching Dollar Shave Club’s tongue-in-cheek spot ‘Our Blades Are F**king Great’ that the Irish grad became inspired to self-direct an ad campaign that would position himself as a winning candidate.
“Being in your own ad is so silly and over-the-top, but that ad is funny because Mike doesn't comes across as if he's grandstanding – he is mocking himself essentially,” he explained. “If you are going to create a campaign for yourself, it can quickly turn into: 'Look at this cool thing I have done!' I wanted to avoid that.”
Overend scripted the film ‘Self-Directed’, and enlisted a start-up video agency based in Dublin to produce the spot.
“I called in a lot of favours from family and friends as well,” he noted. “It would not have been possible without their help.”
The final production charts Overend’s journey to dramatically “prove [himself] to the best marketing companies”, hiring a body builder to play himself and – literally – march to the beat of his own drum.
In a meta twist, the final shot reveals the campaign he has dreamed up was all in his imagination. He’s seen brainstorming ideas next to a copy of ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’.
Overend is hosting ‘Self-Directed’ on a dedicated microsite, which also features a video of him auditioning voice actors to “replicate my vocal timbre” and, intriguingly, a link to his own cryptocurrency brand (aptly named SelfDirectedCoin).
The campaign picked up interest on Reddit and has led to coverage in the Daily Mirror and Ireland’s Daily Edge.
“The publicity has been incredible,” said Overend. “The YouTube video has reached about 320,000 views in ten days. However, my main focus was always to demonstrate my passion for advertising to creative directors. I hope I have achieved that.”
As for his dream agency?
"I wouldn't like to name any agencies in particular, even if I have a few in mind," he said. "My dream agency is one which thrives on hard work, passion and teamwork."