Graffiti is nothing new in England’s hipster heartland, the London district of Shoreditch, but it’s not normally put there by spies. In a bid to reach the area’s techies, British intelligence organisation GCHQ (no, not that one) has graffitied recruitment ads on the pavement.

The self-deprecating ads seem to play on GCHQ’s less glamorous image (in comparison with MI6), starting with “GCH-who?”, and promote technical opportunities within the organisation. Possibly in consideration of Shoreditch’s environmentally-conscious hipsters, the ads have been created using “clean” graffiti. That is, part of the pavement has actually been cleaned in the shape of the design, rather than using paint. It’s an area that makes sense for GCHQ (which stands for Government Communications Headquarters) to target. The graffiti appeared close to the self-proclaimed “Silicon Roundabout”, which is a hub for tech startups.

Apparently, some users had difficulty accessing the website mentioned by the graffiti, suggesting any new tech recruits will have some immediate work to do.

When asked for comment, the agency said: “We are exploring using more innovative ways of reaching the people we would like to recruit and therefore use a range of channels for our advertising.”

GCHQ aren’t the only ones to get a bit creative with their recruiting, as we covered in a previous post. Nor are they the only major government agency doing a bit of tech recruiting recently, as mentioned here.

Image: Twitter / James Cook

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