MI6 has launched a new recruitment drive on Google and YouTube so as not to miss out on potential employees that might switch channels from a TV advert.

Recognising that younger viewers are eschewing traditional means of consuming film and other media, the new advert attempts to reach its audience through alternative channels.

The second advert in the ‘Secretly we’re just like you’ series was launched on YouTube and Google Play today.

The spy agency has deliberately taken a risk with the content of the new advert. The opening shot is a close-up of a man’s sweating face with a knife visible, leading the viewer to think he may be undergoing torture.

However, when the camera pulls back viewers see the man is actually in a barber’s chair enjoying a wet shave, whilst listening to the conversations going on around him.

"We are intelligence officers, but we don't do what you think," the voiceover says. "It's not finding the secret button for your ejector seat. It's finding common ground with a stranger, anywhere, and gaining their trust. It's reading people as well as you read the papers."

"If that sounds familiar, it's because you do it everyday," the advert concludes, hoping to dispel some of the myths around the traditional 'James Bond' image.