The "Unpaid Is Unfair" campaign by NACE, created with Zulu Alpha Kilo, addresses the persistent issue of unpaid internships in the United States. The campaign’s core brand proposition centers on the value and fairness of paid internships, asserting that all work, including internships, deserves financial compensation. It aims to highlight the tangible disadvantages unpaid interns face, such as financial hardship and diminished career opportunities, while emphasizing the benefits for employers who offer paid positions—improved hiring pipelines, higher retention rates, and better candidate quality.
The campaign leverages a social experiment format, using relatable film content to dramatize the absurdity of substituting tangible wages with non-monetary perks like agency swag, leftover bagels, and reference letters. This creative approach effectively humanizes the issue by showcasing the real challenges student interns face in affording basic necessities when unpaid. The narrative is reinforced by data from NACE, revealing that paid interns secure more job offers and higher salaries than their unpaid counterparts.
Strategically, the campaign targets both business decision-makers and the broader public at a moment when internships are being planned for the upcoming academic year. By drawing from the authentic experiences of students and collaborating with advertising students who originally developed the concept, the campaign gains credibility and emotional resonance. It also extends engagement through a contest where viewers can convert depicted swag into real monetary value, reinforcing the campaign’s message interactively.
Overall, the campaign combines social proof, industry research, and a strong creative concept to advocate for systemic change in internship compensation practices, aiming to shift public and employer perceptions around the fairness and value of paid internships.
FORMAT#3 SYMBOLIZE THE PROBLEM — Uses symbols or analogies to represent the problem instead of showing it literally.
This campaign fits FORMAT#3, Symbolize the Problem, because it dramatizes the hardship of unpaid internships by having the intern attempt to pay for goods and services using non-monetary tokens—boardroom bagels, mugs, reference letters—rather than actual money. This is an exaggerated, symbolic device: swag and "experience" stand in for the salary interns should receive. Rather than directly showing financial struggle, the ads use these physical, absurd substitutes as an analogy for income, highlighting the injustice of unpaid internships in a memorable, metaphorical way.
ADVERTISING FORMATS EXPLAINED: https://www.clapboard.com/blog/branding-and-advertising/brand-strategy/12-advertising-creative-formats
1. Intern Bridge – Positioned as a research-driven organization providing data and insights on internship programs, Intern Bridge focuses on improving internship quality through benchmarking and best practices, helping employers create effective paid internship experiences that drive talent development and retention.
2. The National Internship and Co-op Consortium (NICC) – NICC differentiates itself by fostering collaboration between employers, educators, and students to enhance experiential learning opportunities, emphasizing paid and equitable internships as vital components of workforce readiness and career success.
3. The College Internship Program (CIP) – CIP specializes in matching students with paid internships that promote career growth, focusing on quality placements in diverse industries and ensuring interns gain practical, compensated experience to boost employability and reduce economic barriers.
4. WayUp – WayUp leverages technology to connect students and recent graduates with paid internships and entry-level jobs, emphasizing inclusivity and access through its platform that highlights fair compensation practices and diversity in hiring.
5. Internships.com (a Chegg service) – Positioned as a comprehensive internship marketplace, Internships.com emphasizes paid opportunities and employer transparency, supporting students and employers with resources that promote equitable internship experiences and advocate for fair remuneration.
Q: What is Unpaid Is Unfair about?
A: Unpaid Is Unfair is a 2023 public interest campaign created for NACE by the agency Zulu Alpha Kilo, targeting the United States market. The campaign originated from a collaboration with Humber College advertising students, who developed the concept to advocate for paid internships. Central to the campaign is a series of six videos that humorously and poignantly depict a student intern attempting to pay for everyday essentials with non-monetary items like agency swag and reference letters, highlighting the real-world hardships of unpaid internships. The campaign leverages both authentic student experiences and industry research to call for systemic change in internship compensation.
Q: What creative device does Unpaid Is Unfair use?
A: Unpaid Is Unfair employs the Symbolize the Problem technique, classified as FORMAT#3 in Clapboard’s 12-format taxonomy. Instead of literally showing financial struggle, the campaign dramatizes the issue by having the intern attempt to use non-monetary tokens—such as bagels, mugs, and reference letters—in place of actual wages. This exaggerated, symbolic device makes the injustice of unpaid internships tangible and memorable, using physical objects as analogies for the salary interns deserve. The approach is designed to provoke both empathy and critical reflection on the absurdity of unpaid work.
Q: What is the campaign proposition for Unpaid Is Unfair?
A: The campaign proposition for Unpaid Is Unfair centers on the assertion that all work, including internships, deserves financial compensation. NACE and Zulu Alpha Kilo position the campaign to challenge the normalization of unpaid internships, targeting both business decision-makers and the broader public. By highlighting research that shows paid interns receive more job offers and higher starting salaries, the campaign underscores the tangible disadvantages of unpaid internships while making the case that paid programs benefit employers through stronger hiring pipelines and retention. The message is timely, aiming to influence internship planning for the upcoming academic year.
Q: How does Unpaid Is Unfair rank in Clapboard's archive?
A: Unpaid Is Unfair holds a Clapboard Campaign Score of 69/100 in Clapboard’s global ad archive. This score reflects the campaign’s creative ambition, execution quality, and cultural relevance as assessed by Clapboard’s curatorial standards.
Q: Who are the competitors in NACE's category?
A: In the internship advocacy and placement space, NACE competes with several key organizations. Intern Bridge positions itself as a research-driven authority on internship program quality and benchmarking, while the National Internship and Co-op Consortium (NICC) focuses on collaboration between employers, educators, and students to promote equitable, paid internships. The College Internship Program (CIP) specializes in matching students with paid, career-advancing placements across industries. WayUp leverages technology to connect students with paid opportunities, emphasizing inclusivity and fair compensation, and Internships.com, a Chegg service, operates as a comprehensive marketplace prioritizing paid roles and employer transparency.
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