The walking ad-man Jason Fruen, who turned himself into a human billboard, has been offered a job.
It was fascinating to me that, if you read Saturday’s Manchester Evening News, the story reported that it was “after his picture appeared in the MEN.”
The 39-year-old from Little Hulton, Salford, had been made redundant for six months, and took up a roadside spot near the Trafford Centre with a sandwich board reading ’Mechanical Engineer Seeking Employment’ and his mobile phone number.
And it seems, from the information we have, that he wasn’t spotted by a driver and offered a job, but that someone heard or saw his story on Channel M, or perhaps via the other news outlets which picked up the story on Friday.
By the time I saw Friday evening’s BBC Northwest Tonight, it even filmed Jason coming out of the successful job interview…to speak to his next interview, with the BBC TV reporter.
You wonder if Jason calculated that the media coverage would have an influence in getting him work. In which case, fair play to him: anyone can understand the principles of good PR, and he was clearly happy to speak to the media about his situation.
As recession bites, will others take to this approach? One thing is for sure, the media will be bored if another individual, or series of individuals, take the same action. News editors will yawn and say ‘Been done before – old news.’
However, if tens or dozens or hundreds start doing the same thing on roadsides or in city centres, a very different type of story will take shape - a wider social one, of ‘the human misery of unemployment’ and ‘back to the 30s’ (when sandwich-board carriers pleading for work were a regular sight).
Then it would move from one man’s employment problem, to a more pervasive PR problem for central government, local authorities and business.
Tags: bbc northwest tonight, channel m, manchester evening news
If only the MEN wielded such power.
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