Graduates Sell Their Faces to Pay Off Student Debt

A pair of enterprising graduates have come up with a novel way of paying off their university debt- selling advertising space on their faces. Ross Harper and Ed Moyse are offering companies the chance to have their logos scrawled across their faces in face paint. 

After graduating from Cambridge last year, the two 22-year-olds were faced with tens of thousands of pounds of student debt, and the toughest graduate jobs market in decades. Rather than go the conventional route of trying to find a job, they came up with the idea of transforming themselves in to walking billboards. After starting the website BuyMyFace.com in October, they planned  to sell their faces for 366 days (one year) in the hope of raising enough to pay off the £50,000 of student debt they have.

Since then, they have managed to 'sell their faces' every single day. On the first few days, they charged just £1, but since their success has grown, their faces can now command up to £400 a day. Indeed, 178 days in, they are well on track of meeting their target, having made an amazing £32,282 so far.  

A New Way of Advertising

For their money, advertisers not only get a prime spot on the homepage of their website, but Ross and Ed also make sure they get their faces in prominent positions elsewhere. Advertisers have paid for them to complete stunts whilst branded with their logo, doing everything from skydiving to jumping in to freezing rivers. The hope is that videos and photos of them then go viral online. As Moyse explained to AFP:

"The idea isn't about seeing us in the real world. It's about getting good photos and funny videos on our website, and that's seen by thousands of people every day."     

The success of the project has been so rapid, that the pair are now planning on taking the idea abroad. They plan to help manage new recruits from all over the world, even long after they have retired their own faces in September.

As the duo say on their website: "It's bizarre, yes. But it just might work".

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