Get off that couch and get on her Majesty’s Secret Services payroll

Talk about some odd form of cross promotion:

One of Britain’s intelligence agencies will embed advertisements into popular video games this month in a bid to attract new recruits, The Times reported on Thursday.

The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Britain’s intelligence listening post, will embed the adverts as billboards in video games including “Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Double Agent” in a bid to attract “computer-savvy, technologically-able, quick-thinking” recruits.

“We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people … to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls,” a GCHQ spokeswoman told the newspaper.

“We will monitor the results from this campaign and are ready to change our recruitment methods … We know we can’t stand still,” the spokeswoman said, adding that GCHQ hoped to “plant the idea in the heads of younger players”. AFP