LONDON — Maybe it seemed like a good idea at the brainstorm.

"We could set up a blanket with a pair of sandals, a dog bowl and a sign reading 'Found a job,' make it look like a homeless person disappeared into a new career?"

Needless to say, job website City Calling's latest marketing stunt didn't go down too well.

The vignettes were spotted by one Londoner and uploaded to the Shit London Facebook page, where they were immediately branded "sick," "offensive" and "vile."

City Calling has since seen several of its stock photo-heavy social posts hijacked by disgruntled Londoners, with one, Concepta Cassar, declaring the campaign "among the most crass things to feature in visual imagery."

"To rob the most vulnerable people in society of whatever modicum of dignity they manage to cling to in the face of such hardship by using their plight as an object of supposedly comedic derision is obscene," she said.

Making the Most of HR - http://buff.ly/1Mv9MV6 Posted by City Calling on Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Mashable reached out to City Calling for a response and they simply responded with the same defiant message they've posted to their social networks:

We are a job board that facilitates every individual jobseeker no matter their personal circumstance. We have remained and will remain a free service for both jobseeker and employer. As an organisation, we do endless amounts of charity work throughout the year that certainly does not go unnoticed by those that we help.

One person on Facebook called for the person responsible to be sacked for the stunt. "I trust that whoever did this is now looking for a job, in some beautiful twist of irony?" Ciara Lee Ellis said.