MEDIAWATCH: Why Are NZ Corrections Recruitment Ads So Weird?

NZ Corrections recruitment ads have become their own genre: awkward, over-scripted, and strangely aggressive about who “belongs” in the job. The latest campaign feels less like hiring and more like a personality test written by someone who hates people.

NZ Corrections Recruitment Ads Have a Long History of Weird

Corrections New Zealand have a history of weird recruitment adverts.

I’m never sure who they are actually trying to recruit.

The BBQ Uniform Ad: Who Is This Even For?

Here was their last one…

Corrections Recruitment Ad

I have so many questions.

Why did the Corrections Guards turn up to this BBQ in their uniforms?

Why did they all turn up in their uniforms?

Is this BBQ being held in a prison?

Why are Corrections trying to recruit Bankers?

Why would Bankers leave their multi-million dollar salaries to work in an underfunded, corrupt and violent NZ Prison?

The moral of this advert is don’t invite Corrections staff to your BBQ, they are WAY too intense!

The New Ad: Why Mock the “Uni Kid”?

This is their current one…

…ok.

Why are they mocking this earnest young tertiary educated work experience placement?

Recruitment as Culture War Signalling

The way they ridicule any intellectualism in favour of street knowledge from the hood seems like an ACT Party recruitment video.

I’m waiting for him to be hung by his ankles while they hit him with rubber hoses as part of their hazing.

If Prisons Are Expanding, Why Are Ads Getting Dumber?

With Government policy driving up prison populations, the next recruitment video for our underfunded, violent and corrupt prison environment should be more honest.

Like:

• Want to earn big bucks by smuggling cell phones in your arse?
• Retire early with 20kgs of meth.
• Make overtime dollars by managing jail snitches.

The Point: Recruitment Should Match Reality

Seeing as we are spending over a billion a year on prisons now, we need recruitment videos that sell the danger and excitement of corruption in our modern prisons.

Mocking the Uni kid in recruitment is a good start.