For the first time in its 92-year history, the Institute of Canadian Advertising is launching a formal program through several of its member agencies to attract young Canadians to a career in advertising.

Eleven agencies have signed on to the ICA Intern Program which, through ads in campus newspapers across southern Ontario, along with transit ads and a Web site, calls for entries to a contest where the prize is a year-long job placement with an agency as a junior copywriter.

‘For years you’ve bitched about lame ads,’ reads the ad copy in large type, followed by ‘Now it’s your turn.’

To qualify, candidates must be under 30 and are required to submit creative responses to six quirky requests, such as ‘Make up an urban myth’ and ‘Write a poem or love song espousing the virtues of steel wool, fungicide, spinach or brussel sprouts.’

The judging committee, to be headed by Y&R Senior Vice-Presidents, Co-creative Directors John Farquhar and David Adams, has a mandate to focus on the creativity of the responses, rather than the contents of a resume or other such traditional forms of employer evaluation.

‘We want to attract hot young creative talent,’ says Leo Burnett’s Gerry Frascione, who heads up the ica’s Professional Development Committee – the group formed to supervise the contest.

Frascione, of Leo Burnett, says that the contest is a first step. If successful, the committee plans to roll it out nationally next year and follow with other initiatives to attract young people to the field.

Winners are offered a $20,000 salary to work for one of the participating agencies for a year, starting Sept. 1997, with training sessions throughout the year.

Participating agencies are bbdo, Bozell, Doner Schur Peppler, fcb, J. Walter Thompson, Leo Burnett, MacLaren McCann, smw, Wolf, Vickers & Benson and Young & Rubicam.

Asked why 19 ica members chose not to be involved in the intern program, Frascione points to the the financial and time obligations involved in hiring and training a new junior copywriter.