McMillan challenges millennial stereotypes with Intern Tears campaign
12/03/19

Millennials. Lazy crybabies or ambitious miscasts? 

 

McMillan’s Intern Tears campaign answers a core challenge facing millennial and Gen-Z students: getting a good internship. The campaign counters the stereotypes standing in the way of these hard-working students getting the experience they deserve.

 

For many students, landing a rewarding internship is their first chance to prove themselves in the real world. To take the stereotypes they’re sick to death of hearing—that they’re lazy, entitled crybabies who’ve never worked a day in their lives—and to rise above them. 

 

For its new intern-recruitment campaign, the brand-experience agency is putting a positive spin on the “entitled crybaby” stereotype burdening the iGeneration. To get students’ attention, they’re delivering bottles of tears to post-secondary classrooms across Canada and the U.S.

Branded as the “tears” of real McMillan interns, the bottles warn students not to apply at the agency unless they’re ready for a challenge. “Need an internship?” they say. “Don’t come to us.” It’s a bizarre angle to take to promote an internship program, but the underlining message is strong: students can look to McMillan for the kind of real agency experience they’re hungry for, and that they just aren’t guaranteed after school.

 

So far, the sentiment has evoked a positive response from college professors in Canada and the U.S., though the campaign isn’t restricted to these areas. For McMillan, Intern Tears is a calling card for creative students from any country or city to apply. So long as they’re motivated, there’s a chance the agency can help them prove it and gain the real client experience they’re looking for.

 

“This audience isn’t looking to fill their days with make-work projects,” says Rob Hyams, McMillan CCO. “They want substantive experience. And not just that, they’re looking for great work-life balance, too. We can offer them both.”

 

McMillan interns are formally hired on a term basis and paid the minimum wage amount in Ontario, within regulation of the ESA standards act. Last year, McMillan took on seven interns, and hired two of them to full time jobs after their internship was completed.

 

Interested applicants can visit www.InternTears.com to learn more.