This Airline Is Hiring a Freelancer for its New Marketing Campaign. The Position Has 1 Unusual Requirement

No experience? No problem.

BY ALI DONALDSON, STAFF REPORTER @ALICDONALDSON

Illustration: Inc.; Photos: Adobe Stock

If you’ve ever been disappointed in the photos you took on vacation or wondered why your iPhone shots never look like the ones Apple shows off on its billboards, Icelandair has a job for you. The airline, which offers flights from the U.S. to Iceland, Greenland, and Europe, is looking to hire a freelancer for its latest marketing campaign. The job, which will involve at least 10 days of work this June, promises to pay $50,000 for that short contract. Plus, all travel expenses will be covered. The key requirement?

Be a “really bad photographer.”

Yes, you read that right. Icelandair wants to find a terrible amateur photographer, someone with no professional training or experience—and no real interest in gaining any of those skills. This person just needs to be 21 years of age or older, have a valid passport, and know how to use a smartphone or a basic point-and-shoot camera “without overthinking it.”

The request for shoddy work is key to the airline’s latest marketing push. Iceland, whose striking landscapes of glaciers, fjords, active volcanoes, hot springs, waterfalls, and black-sand beaches have served as a stand-in for alien planets in films, such as Intersteller, Prometheus, and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story—not to mention the fictional land of Westeros in Game of Thrones—is so scenic that anyone, even perhaps the world’s worst amateur photographer, can take amazing photos of the island country, the airline believes. That’s how beautiful it is. 

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The campaign hits at a number of trends that founders and their chief marketing officers predicted would dominate this year: lo-fi content, no-name creators, and experiential campaigns that get consumers involved. Icelandair’s creative hiring initiative also comes amid a tough moment for the industry. Major carriers, feeling the crunch of soaring jet fuel costs from the war in Iran, have started raising prices for consumers.

Just yesterday, Alaska Airlines became the latest company over the past couple weeks to announce it was increasing the cost of checked bags, joining Delta, Southwest, United, and JetBlue. Airlines could use a win from their marketing departments right about now.

For Icelandair, that boost could come from a pathetically poor photographer. So if you are the person who is never asked to take group pictures or you know someone who cannot seem to take a picture without their thumb on the lens, applications are open until the end of April. All of those years of bad pictures no one wanted to frame may be finally worth it.

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