I’ve just got massively angry. And I don’t do that very often.

WCRS, a rather big advertising agency in London with clients such as Sky, BMW and Churchill just tweeted:

Now, I’m sure they thought this was a nice thing to do. They’d seen pitchslave.com, liked the idea and wanted to send some business his way. But “Like the idea of having a grad work for free?” was completely the wrong thing to say.

It’s hard to get into the advertising industry. Lots of very talented people never achieve it because it takes lots of time, effort and, yes, money. The good agencies will pay you at least minimum wage while you’re on placements, but there are many others who only pay expenses or even nothing at all. As the hours are usually long, it’s hard to get another job to actually earn money. Which means a lot of grads have to rely on their parents/partners/friends to help them out, whether that be transport, a place to crash or even food. And don’t get me started on the Job Centre.

‘Pitch Slave’ (or Henry Carless to his parents) is completely undermining all those who are trying to get into the industry without the funds to do so. Working for a big advertising agency isn’t like volunteering for a charity, these companies have the money to pay you for the work you do.

Graduates should not be seen as free labour.