Justin Crann
The shop takes its advocacy against unpaid internships to another level.
Zulu Alpha Kilo has partnered with the U.S. National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) to urge employers to end the practice of unpaid internships.
The agency and organization have launched a campaign called “Unpaid is Unfair” that draws on and uses material from a 2019 project of ZAK’s involving Humber College advertising students.
In December of that year, the agency invited a class of students to gain real-world experience working on a campaign for the agency about the importance of paying interns. The project was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and was never released – until, with the support of NACE, it went live across North America on Sept. 19.
“Many industries, not just advertising, have normalized unpaid internships and it’s not good for employers or future employees,” says Tim Gordon, CCO and partner at Zulu Alpha Kilo’s New York office, which worked with the Toronto team to launch the campaign south of the border.
According to research from NACE, approximately 41% of internships are unpaid, and “students who engage in unpaid internships must forgo an income,” according to Shawn VanDerziel, the organization’s executive director. That creates a hardship for many students, especially those from underrepresented and marginalized groups.
The problem then spills over into their professional lives, as well. In NACE’s most recent study, VanDerziel says, “we found that paid interns averaged 1.4 job offers while unpaid interns averaged less than one.” And of those who do land a job, the ones who had completed a paid internship are given higher starting salaries than those whose internships were unpaid.
Ending the inequitable practice of unpaid internships has long been a goal for ZAK, which launched its “Employeeship” program in 2017 specifically to target the practice by offering applicants the chance to participate in a day-long bootcamp. The top performers at that bootcamp are then hired on the spot with a starting salary of $50,000.
“Part of our founding ethos is to try and improve the industry and challenge the way things have always been done,” explains Zak Mroueh, founder and creative chairman for ZAK. “Unpaid internships are not always manageable for those who may not have the financial means, which means we don’t get to see an equitable representation of who the best talent really is.”
With the campaign, the agency is now turning its attention outward and “encouraging those running a business or in a hiring position to help advocate for all internships to be paid,” Mroueh tells strategy.
Laura Biggar, one of the students who worked on the initial brief in 2019, was hired as a copywriter by the agency and worked to bring the final version of the campaign to launch.
“I can’t believe this idea started as a scribble on a page nearly four years ago,” says Biggar. “It’s been so rewarding to see it finally executed and shared with the world.”
The campaign consists of six, minute-long videos directed by Mroueh himself through the agency’s in-house production team, Zulubot. In the videos, interns try to pay for everything from clothing to groceries with the items they “earned” at their unpaid internships, ranging from an agency-branded mug to leftover bagels, a reference letter and even their accrued, “valuable job experience.”
The campaign satirizes the ridiculousness of unpaid internships, but the message is a serious one, which employers should heed for their own long-term advantage, as well as that of their interns.
“Paid internship programs serve as an effective pipeline for entry-level talent for full-time positions,” explains VanDerziel. “The data also show that employees who have been paid interns have higher retention rates than unpaid interns or those who have never participated in an internship.”
Source: Brunico Communications Ltd.
Original content:
https://strategyonline.ca/2023/09/20/zulu-alpha-kilo-pairs-with-u-s-non-profit-to-promote-paid-internships/
