The lawyers advised against it but an agency is advertising for older interns

Chris Pash
By Chris Pash | 18 September 2020
 

Creative agency Thinkerbell has launched Thrive@55, an eight week paid internship available to people over the age of 55.

The agency says the program is probably discriminatory to everyone else.

Did the lawyers advise against it? Yes.

But the reason Thinkerbell is launching Thrive@55 is a growing and obvious age gap in the majority of companies operating in advertising, public relations and media in Australia.

Only 5% of ad agency employees globally are aged over 50. The median age for employees is 38.

“We’ve created this internship program because our older generation are massively underrepresented in the advertising industry, and have a lifetime of experience to bring to our agency, and our industry," says Emma O’Leary, agency C.O.P. (Culture, Operations and People),

"We want our staff and clients to benefit from people with years of life experience, and vice versa.”

Thinkerbell is looking for people over the age of 55 to bring their experience to the agency, across creative, account management, office management, finance, media, digital services, illustration, strategy, photography.

“You could be a retired hotel concierge that’s interested in running our front of house, a detective who wants to do some insights work, or a newspaper cartoonist who’s looking for the next creative challenge.” says O’Leary.

“We don’t mind where your experience comes from, as long as you think you have something to give to our industry”.

Applications for the internship close on October 20. From there, applicants will be shortlisted and selected via an interview process, with applicants considered in both Thinkerbell’s North and South offices (Sydney and Melbourne).

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