Thirteen funny and creative job ads taken apart, each with the line that did the work and a named source with the date we checked it. Plus the help wanted structure line by line, ten plain help wanted ad samples by role, and a newspaper want ad with its abbreviation key. Canonical: https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads Funny job ads # Funny Job Ads: 13 Creative Hiring Ads, and the Best Help Wanted Ad Ever Thirteen funny and creative job ads taken apart: the line that did the work, the mechanism under it, and the source we checked it against with the date we checked it. Then the plain half nobody else ships, which is the help wanted structure line by line, ten short ads written out in full, and a newspaper want ad with its abbreviations decoded. Niels GeominyPublished 1 September 2026Last updated 1 September 2026 [Read the 13 ads](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#funny-job-ads)[Skip to the 10 plain samples](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#help-wanted-samples) Thirteen funny job ads that really ran, each one taken apart to show the mechanism that made it work, with the source named and the date we checked it printed on the card. Then the half no listicle bothers with: how a help wanted ad is actually built, ten short ones written out in full, and a newspaper want ad with its abbreviations translated. The funny job ad has a bad reputation and it half deserves it. Most are a joke stapled onto a vacancy, and the joke spends credibility the ad still needs for the boring parts: the pay, the hours, the shape of the week. Every ad below avoids that the same way. The joke is about the specific job, which means it filters for the exact people who could do it instead of entertaining everybody else. Nothing here is re-hosted. We do not reproduce anybody's creative, so each card is the one line that did the work, the teardown, and a link out to the source. Where a campaign published an application figure through a named source, the figure is on the card with the attribution inside it. Where it did not, the card says No result data rather than borrowing a number off somebody's listicle. On this page - [The best help wanted ad ever, and how we picked it](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#best-help-wanted-ad-ever) - [13 funny and creative job ads, and why each one worked](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#funny-job-ads) - [What the funny job ads that worked have in common](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#what-they-share) - [How a help wanted ad is built, line by line](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#help-wanted-structure) - [Sample help wanted ads for 10 roles, ready to copy](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#help-wanted-samples) - [Newspaper want ad examples, and the abbreviation key](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#newspaper-want-ad) - [Questions about funny job ads and help wanted ads](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#questions) - [A funny job ad still has to be seen](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#make-the-ads) ## The best help wanted ad ever, and how we picked it Our pick for the best help wanted ad ever is the City of Los Angeles graphic designer post from 2018: a hiring notice for a designer that looked as though it had been drawn freehand with a mouse. It cost nothing to run, it was funny only to the people qualified for the job, and it still carried the salary band and the closing date. [Read the full teardown](https://recruitmentads.com/examples/funny-job-ads#city-of-los-angeles) A help wanted ad is not a campaign. It is a short public notice with one job to do, which is to make one specific role impossible to ignore for the small number of people who could actually fill it. Judged on that, a budget is close to a disadvantage. Precision is the whole event, and that is why our pick beats four campaigns further down this page that cost real money. The Los Angeles post works because the joke and the vacancy are the same object. Only a designer feels it, and a designer who feels it cannot scroll past. While they were arguing about it in the replies they were also reading the salary band, which ran from $46,708 to $103,230, and the closing date, which was on the post. Per My Modern Met it drew more than 30,000 retweets and over 1,000 replies, and no media was bought. The one thing it cannot claim is intent. Nobody at the city ever confirmed the crudeness was deliberate, so the lesson has to be reverse engineered rather than copied off a brief somebody signed. Which makes it the best help wanted ad ever run, and not quite the best one ever planned. ## 13 funny and creative job ads, and why each one worked Every card follows the same read: the line that did the work, what a person saw first, why it works, and what we would change. They are in three groups, because these ads win in three different ways, and knowing which one you are attempting is most of the job. None of the creative is reproduced here. Each card quotes one short line and links out to the source that carries it, with the date we fetched that source. No result data. on a card means the campaign published no figure through a source that answered when we checked. Numbers circulate for several of these. We would rather print the gap than repeat one we cannot trace to somebody willing to stand behind it. ### Funny job ads where the joke and the job were the same thing Four ads that are funny about the specific work being advertised, not funny in general. That distinction is the whole game: a joke about the job filters for the people who can do it, and a joke stapled to a vacancy just costs you credibility. social post2018 #### City of Los Angeles: a graphic designer help wanted ad that looks like it was drawn with a mouse, social > The City of Los Angeles is now hiring Graphics Designer The line, quoted from CBS Los Angeles. [Source: CBS Los AngelesChecked 2026-08-19](https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/cartoonish-job-ad-los-angeles/) What you saw first A rainbow scrawl, apparently drawn freehand with a mouse, sitting next to a pixelated city seal and a lumpy mosaic. CBS Los Angeles said it looked like a child's first go on a computer. Why it works It is a help wanted ad for a designer that appears to have been made by someone who has never met one. That gap is the entire mechanism, and it is aimed with real precision: the only people who feel it in their teeth are the people qualified to fix it. Designers could not scroll past a joke about their own craft, so they shared it, argued about it, and read the terms while they were arguing. The boring half is right too. The salary band ran from $46,708 to $103,230 and the closing date was on the post, so the joke never cost the reader the facts. A city payroll job is a hard sell against agency work, and this put one in front of tens of thousands of designers for nothing. What we would change Nobody at the city ever confirmed the crudeness was deliberate, so the joke is doing the work by accident. We would own it in the caption. A stunt you cannot claim is a stunt you cannot repeat. Result Per My Modern Met, the post drew more than 30,000 retweets and over 1,000 replies. press release and careers site2025 #### Oscar Mayer: a job ad written entirely in hot dog puns, press release and careers site > cut the mustard The line, quoted from The Kraft Heinz Company. [Source: The Kraft Heinz CompanyChecked 2026-09-02](https://news.kraftheinzcompany.com/press-releases-details/2025/Oscar-Mayer-Seeks-New-Class-of-Hotdoggers-to-Drive-the-Beloved-Wienermobile-into-Its-90th-Year/default.aspx) What you saw first A vacancy for a Hotdogger: one year, full time, driving a 27 foot hot dog across more than thirty states. The company's own announcement is written in puns from the headline down, and the phrase for making the shortlist is cutting the mustard. Why it works Most employers write the ad in one voice and the brand in another. Oscar Mayer refuses to, and the refusal is the filter. The job is to stand next to a giant sausage all year and be relentlessly cheerful about it, so an ad that will not stop punning is a working sample of the role. Anyone who winces at bunderful has just self-selected out, at no cost to either side, before a form is opened. The rest of the ad is unusually concrete for a stunt: a named class number, a fixed one-year term, a real travel load, a real deadline. The joke sets the tone and then the facts do the qualifying, which is the order that works. What we would change The public announcement carries no pay figure. For a one-year relocation-shaped job aimed at new graduates, that is the first thing a serious applicant needs and the last thing they can find. We would put the number in the ad and let the puns carry the rest. Result Per Kraft Heinz, the company's own announcement puts the field at roughly 5,000 applicants for 12 places, in the 39th class of Hotdoggers. government job board2017 #### NASA: a government job listing that went viral on its title alone, USAJobs > Planetary Protection Officer The line, quoted from CBS News. [Source: CBS NewsChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jack-davis-nasa-planetary-protection-officer/) What you saw first A routine federal listing on USAJobs, job ID 474414000, at $124,000 to $187,000 a year. The title read Planetary Protection Officer, and the internet decided that meant defending Earth from aliens. Why it works Nothing about this ad was designed to be funny. The title was, and a title is the only part of a job ad that travels on its own. The real work is keeping Earth's microbes off other planets and other planets' microbes off Earth when samples come back, which is genuinely interesting and completely invisible in a normal listing. The name did what a hundred words of body copy could not. Then NASA did the thing most employers get wrong: it played along. When a nine-year-old wrote in offering, as a qualification, that his sister says he is an alien, the agency's planetary science director wrote back and told him to study hard. That reply is the ad, and it cost one letter. What we would change The listing itself is standard federal boilerplate, so every person the title pulled in landed on a wall of grade codes and series numbers. We would have written the first paragraph in the same voice as the title. Result No result data. careers site2019 #### Mondelez International: a chocolate taster ad that made the selection test part of the pitch, careers site > tastebuds for detection The line, quoted from CNBC Make It. [Source: CNBC Make ItChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/28/dream-job-cadbury-is-hiring-chocolate-testersno-experience-necessary.html) What you saw first Four part-time places on the panel that tastes Cadbury products before anyone else does. No experience wanted, no qualifications wanted. What the ad asks for is a passion for confectionery and tastebuds for detection. Why it works The ad names the selection stage and makes it sound like the best part of the job. Applicants were told they would face choco-challenges, tests of whether they can actually detect small differences between products. Most employers hide the assessment because they think it puts people off. Here it is the proof that the job is real work and not a competition prize, and it converts a fantasy into something a person can picture doing on a Tuesday. The rest is disciplined. Eight hours a week, a named site in Berkshire, a closing date, and a plain line saying no reply in fourteen days means no. A dream job ad that answers the boring questions is the one that fills. What we would change The ad rules out anyone with a food allergy or dietary restriction, which is correct and unavoidable, but it arrives late. We would put it in the first three lines so nobody spends an evening applying for a job they cannot take. Result Per CNBC, citing The Sun, an earlier opening at the company drew almost 1,500 applications in its first 24 hours and about 6,000 in total, and became the fifth most viewed job listing on LinkedIn. ### Creative hiring ads that went where the candidates already were Four employers who stopped buying the media recruiters buy and bought the media their candidates were already using. In three of the four, the placement is funnier than anything in the copy. in-game placement2011 #### Uncle Grey: a developer job ad hidden inside Team Fortress 2, in-game Uncle Grey No source we fetched quotes a line from this ad, so there is no quotation on this card. [Source: Ads of the WorldChecked 2026-08-19](https://www.adsoftheworld.com/campaigns/in-game-job-recruitment) What you saw first You are mid-firefight in Team Fortress 2 and there is a job ad on the wall of the map. The Danish agency had also sponsored one of the game's biggest clans, so the players shooting at you carried the careers message as their in-game names. Why it works Uncle Grey needed front-end developers and its ordinary recruiting had stopped finding them. So it worked out where those developers spent their evenings and went there instead. The joke is how literal it is: the agency stopped shouting into job boards and walked into the room. It also self-selects better than any tick box. Everyone who read that poster was already a gamer with the reflexes, the hardware and the taste the agency was screening for, and they met the brand while enjoying themselves rather than while job hunting. Buying a clan sponsorship on top turned other players into the media, which is the cheapest distribution there is and the only kind nobody scrolls past. What we would change A poster you notice mid-firefight is a poster you have forgotten by the respawn. We would run the same line on the sponsored clan's stream overlay, where people are sitting still and can actually type a URL. Result No result data. billboard2004 #### Google: a recruitment billboard with no company name on it, outdoor > {first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com The line, quoted from MathWorld, Wolfram Research. [Source: MathWorld, Wolfram ResearchChecked 2026-09-02](https://mathworld.wolfram.com/news/2004-10-13/google/) What you saw first Black type on white on southbound Highway 101, and an identical banner in Harvard Square. No logo, no company, no job title. Just a maths problem with .com stuck on the end. Why it works The billboard is a filter disguised as an advertisement. Nobody sees it and applies; they see it and either can or cannot work out that the answer is 7427466391. Solving it opens a site with a harder puzzle behind it, and only then does the recruiting message appear, along with a line about how it is easier to find what you are looking for if it comes looking for you. Every person who reached that page had already proved the exact aptitude the job needed, and had done it for fun, unpaid, on the way to work. Leaving the brand off is the brave part. It swaps reach for qualification, which is the trade almost every recruitment campaign gets the wrong way round. What we would change One puzzle would have done. The second stage adds no new signal about the candidate and loses people who had already proved the point, which is a cost with no matching benefit. Result No result data. standalone website2011 #### GCHQ: an anonymous code-breaking challenge that turned out to be a job ad, online > canyoucrackit.co.uk The line, quoted from The Register. [Source: The RegisterChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.theregister.com/2011/12/01/canyoucrackit/) What you saw first A block of code on a bare web page at canyoucrackit.co.uk, spreading through forums and social feeds with no sign of who put it there. Crack it and you get a keyword. Enter the keyword and you land on the recruitment site of a British intelligence agency. Why it works The anonymity is deliberate and it is the whole design. The agency kept its name off the challenge so that wanting a career there could not be the reason anyone engaged, which means the people who spread it did so on the merits of the puzzle. That solves a problem no amount of media spend solves: the self-taught coder GCHQ wanted was not reading government careers pages and would have distrusted the ad if they had. A puzzle passed hand to hand by peers arrives with a recommendation attached. It also screens for the one thing a CV cannot show, which is whether somebody will sit with a problem at midnight because it annoys them. What we would change The reveal is the weakest moment: you solve a hard problem and get a form. We would have put a person on the other side of the keyword, because the gap between proving yourself and hearing from a human is where good candidates go cold. Result No result data. parenting forum2015 #### MI6: an intelligence officer job advert placed on a parenting forum, Mumsnet > creativity, insight, curiosity, empathy and intuition The line, quoted from CNN. [Source: CNNChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.cnn.com/2015/10/30/europe/mumsnet-mi6-spy-careers/index.html) What you saw first Between the threads about school runs and sleep training, a job advert for Intelligence Officers in London. It asks for creativity, insight, curiosity, empathy and intuition, and warns applicants to be aware of the importance of discretion. Why it works The media buy is the message. A Parliamentary commission had found the agencies were mostly men from similar backgrounds, and recommended recruiting through Mumsnet by name. Running the ad there says, in one placement, that the service means it. The copy then does the harder half. It lists the qualities that the audience already knows it has and that spy recruitment had spent fifty years implying were beside the point, and it never once mentions the fictional version of the job. Placement and wording agree with each other, which is rare. The forum reaction did the distribution: people posted about whether they could tail someone while carrying three school bags, and the ad travelled a long way past its own media. What we would change The advert asks for discretion and offers nothing back about what applying actually involves, how long it takes, or what happens to an application that fails. For a job people assume is closed to them, the process is the reassurance. Result No applications figure was published. Per CNN, Mumsnet spokeswoman Jane Gentle said the advert had a great reaction and had drawn more applications than any other job advert on the site. ### Catchy job ads that sold something bigger than the vacancy Five ads that were not really selling a role. They were selling six months of a different life, or an argument about who gets to belong somewhere, and the vacancy was how you bought in. campaign microsite2009 #### Tourism Queensland: The Best Job in the World, campaign microsite > Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef The line, quoted from Queensland Government, Ministerial Media Statements. [Source: Queensland Government, Ministerial Media StatementsChecked 2026-08-19](https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/57339) What you saw first A vacancy for a Caretaker of the Islands of the Great Barrier Reef: six months based on Hamilton Island, an ocean-front villa, an AUD $150,000 contract, and exactly one accepted application format, a 60 second video. Why it works It is an advertisement for a holiday destination wearing a job ad as a costume, and everybody was in on it. The costume is what makes it travel. A brochure about Queensland is something you scroll past; a job you could theoretically get is something you send to a friend. So the tourism board wrote a real role with real terms and let the world audition. The video-only application then did two jobs at once. It filtered out anyone unwilling to perform on camera, which was the actual skill the role needed, and it handed the campaign tens of thousands of clips of strangers explaining why they wanted to be in Queensland. The applicants made the advertising, which is the reason the economics of this one still look unreal. What we would change 34,000 applicants for one job leaves 33,999 disappointed people the campaign had nothing to offer. We would have put a second, quieter list of real Queensland tourism vacancies on the same site. Result Per the Queensland Government, more than 34,000 people from almost 200 countries applied, the campaign generated over AUD $200 million in publicity value, and it won three Grand Prix at Cannes Lions. charity job listing2015 #### UK Antarctic Heritage Trust: the Antarctic post office vacancy, charity job listing UK Antarctic Heritage Trust No source we fetched quotes a line from this ad, so there is no quotation on this card. [Source: ABC NewsChecked 2026-09-02](https://abcnews.com/Travel/antarctica-penguin-post-office-job-attracts-record-number/story?id=29244600) What you saw first Four places on a base at Port Lockroy, Antarctica, running a post office that handles about 70,000 cards a year to 100 countries. Pay was $1,700 a month. There are no shops, no privacy and no easy way out until the season ends. Why it works The ad's advantage is a phrase, and the trust uses it. Penguin post office is four syllables that explain the entire job, and no headline writer in the world can resist repeating it, so a small charity's staffing problem gets the reach of a national campaign at no cost. Underneath the phrase, the listing is unusually honest about the discomfort: the isolation, the season length, the size of the place. That honesty is what converts curiosity into an application worth reading, because everyone who applies has already priced in the bad part. The pay is modest and stated plainly, which matters. Selling a hard job on romance and hiding the terms produces a season of resignations. What we would change Applications cluster in the days after each wave of coverage and then stop. We would keep a standing register open all year, because the person best suited to five months on a rock is rarely the person who happens to read the news that week. Result Per ABC News, more than 1,500 applications arrived in ten days for four posts, against 82 applicants in the whole of the previous year. Facebook post2020 #### Great Blasket Island: a caretaker vacancy posted on Facebook by the two people who run the island, social Great Blasket Island No source we fetched quotes a line from this ad, so there is no quotation on this card. [Source: The Irish TimesChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/ireland/more-than-23-000-people-apply-to-be-great-blasket-caretakers-1.4145428) What you saw first A Facebook post from Billy O'Connor and Alice Hayes looking for caretakers for a six kilometre island off Kerry: April to October, a coffee shop and three guest cottages, and no electricity, no television, no wifi and no hot water. Why it works This is a job ad written by the two people who will have to live with whoever answers it, and it reads like it. There is no employer brand, no benefits paragraph and no attempt to make the island sound comfortable. The list of missing utilities is the offer, not a disclaimer, because the entire appeal of the job is what is absent from it. Naming the term as April to October matters just as much: it makes the fantasy finite, so a person can actually say yes without quitting their life. And the ad is explicit that it suits a couple or two friends, which is the sort of practical detail an HR department would edit out and the only detail that decides whether the season works. What we would change 23,000 applications for one post is not a shortlist, it is a mailbox nobody can read. We would ask for a two-minute video and one specific answer, which cuts the pile by ninety per cent and keeps exactly the people who want it enough. Result Per The Irish Times, more than 23,000 people applied within twelve days, from as far away as Australia, the United States, the Middle East and Asia. town notice2017 #### Town of Saalfelden: a hermit vacancy advertised on everything it does not have, town notice Town of Saalfelden No source we fetched quotes a line from this ad, so there is no quotation on this card. [Source: Smithsonian MagazineChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/austrian-town-seeks-professional-hermit-180961819/) What you saw first A town in Austria advertising for someone to live in a cliffside hermitage from April to November. No heating, no running water, no television and no computer. The post is unpaid, and applications were accepted by post only. Why it works Almost every job ad is a list of what the employer provides. This one is a list of what it does not, and it fills anyway, because the absences are the product. It is the purest demonstration on this page that specificity beats persuasion: nobody applies to a hermitage by accident, and the ad has done all of its screening before anyone reaches the requirements. The requirements are then oddly practical. The town wanted someone sociable, because visitors walk up to talk and, as the local priest put it, the hermit has to be there for them. That single line rewrites the job from solitude to service, and it is the difference between an appointment that lasts a season and one that lasts twelve years. What we would change Post only, in a vacancy that the whole internet reads, filters for patience rather than for suitability. We would take the same application by email and keep the handwritten letter as an option, not a gate. Result No result data. posters, print and TV2019 #### British Army: Your Army Needs You, posters that took the insult and answered it, outdoor and TV > Snowflakes, your Army needs you and your compassion The line, quoted from Creative Review. [Source: Creative ReviewChecked 2026-09-02](https://www.creativereview.co.uk/snowflakes-your-army-needs-you-says-new-karmarama-campaign/) What you saw first A pointing-finger poster in the style of the 1914 Leete image of Lord Kitchener, with the labels young people get called printed across it. Snowflakes, binge gamers, me me me millennials. Each one is followed by the trait the Army says it wants from them. Why it works The campaign picks up an insult and hands it back as a qualification. That is a two-move argument compressed into one line, and it works because the second half is specific: not snowflakes, we want you, but snowflakes, we want your compassion. The 1914 poster reference does the rest of the work for free. Everyone recognises the pointing finger, so the ad arrives pre-loaded with the idea of enlistment and can spend its own words on the twist. It was built to be argued about, and it was, loudly. The arguing is the distribution plan. What makes it defensible rather than cynical is that the Army sent people out to defend it and had the record to do so. What we would change One of the soldiers on the posters said publicly that he had not been briefed on the tone and threatened to quit. If your campaign depends on real employees standing behind it, they are the first audience it has to convince, not the last to find out. Result Per The Drum, 16,000 people applied to join in January, the highest registration day in twelve months falling on the day the posters went live. Per Marketing Week, applications were up 71% by the end of January and the work won two Marketing Week Masters Awards. ## What the funny job ads that worked have in common Read across all thirteen and the same six habits keep turning up. These are what separate a funny job ad that hired somebody from one that only got shared: 1. The joke is about this job, not about jokes. Every ad here is funny about the specific work on offer. The Los Angeles post is funny to designers and to almost nobody else. The Hotdogger ad is funny in exactly the way the job is. A joke that would fit any vacancy is decoration, and decoration is the first thing a reader discounts. 2. The gag does the screening. In half of these the joke is the qualifying step. Google's billboard cannot be read by somebody who cannot do the maths. GCHQ's puzzle cannot be finished by somebody who will not sit with a problem past midnight. If the ad is funny and the filter is still a form, the funny part was decoration after all. 3. The ad goes to the audience instead of waiting for it. A poster inside a first-person shooter, a puzzle passed between forums, an intelligence job advertised on a parenting site. All three cost less than the job boards they replaced, and all three arrived carrying a recommendation, because somebody the reader already trusted passed it along. 4. The bad part is in the ad. No heating, no running water, no hot water, an island the size of a football pitch, months you cannot leave. The ads that name the discomfort get applications from people who have already priced it in, and those are the only applications worth reading. 5. The boring facts survive the joke. Salary bands, closing dates, shift patterns, contract lengths, how many weeks the season runs. Every ad on this page that worked keeps them, and keeps them near the top. A funny ad that hides the pay is just a funny ad. 6. Somebody is ready to stand behind it. The campaigns that survived their own backlash had people who could defend them in public with a record to point at. The one that wobbled had a soldier on the poster who had not been told what the poster was going to say. ## How a help wanted ad is built, line by line None of the campaigns above is repeatable on a Tuesday afternoon when you need somebody by the weekend. This is. A help wanted ad is a short public notice, six lines long, and every line exists to answer one question the reader is already asking. Here they are, each with the version that looks perfectly fine and does nothing. A help wanted ad is a notice, not a job description. Six lines, under sixty words, one way to apply. Every line has to answer a question that decides whether somebody turns up. If it does not answer one, it comes out. help-wanted-ad 6 lines, under sixty words Copy the structure {like this} is yours to replace. Everything else is wording you can keep. 1. ### 01What is the job called? Write something like HELP WANTED: {Job Title}, {full time or part time} What kills it. An internal grade, an acronym, or a title somebody invented in a meeting. Use the words a person would say out loud when a friend asks what the job is. 2. ### 02Who is hiring, and where would I be going? Write something like {Company}, {street or district}, {City} What kills it. Local company or an address that is only a postcode. If somebody cannot picture the journey, they cannot say yes to the shift. 3. ### 03When is the work? Write something like {Days}, {start} to {finish}, from {start date} What kills it. Flexible hours. It sounds generous and it gives nobody anything to plan around. Name the days and the times, then say how far ahead the rota goes out. 4. ### 04What does it pay? Write something like {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly}, {plus tips, premium or overtime} What kills it. Competitive. It is the first question in the first phone call, so leaving it out just means having that call twice. 5. ### 05What is the one thing I have to have? Write something like You need {the one thing}. We provide {the training, the kit, the licence, the uniform}. What kills it. A list of eight requirements, six of which you would train. Every extra line narrows the field, and half the people it filters out would have been fine. 6. ### 06What do I do next? Write something like {Call or text} {Name} on {number}, {days and times}. We reply the same day. What kills it. Three routes in, or an inbox nobody watches. One way to apply, one named person, one promise about how fast you answer, and then keep it. This page ships no file on purpose. The help wanted ad template as an editable Word document and as a PDF, plus the long-form job ad template it is the short version of, are on the template page. All of it is free and none of it is behind an email form. [Get the help wanted ad template in Word or PDF](https://recruitmentads.com/job-ad-template) ## Sample help wanted ads for 10 roles, ready to copy Ten short help wanted ads, written out in full. Anything in braces is yours to replace, which is the company, the place, the pay and the contact. Everything else is wording you can keep. They are deliberately plain, because most hiring is not a campaign, and most people looking for a help wanted ads example want something they can paste tonight rather than a case study. Take the closest one, change whatever is not true of your job, and delete any line that would not change somebody's mind about turning up. That is a publishable notice in about five minutes. The braces are ordinary text. Type straight over them. Nothing here asserts a pay rate, because we do not know your market and an invented number is worse than a blank. ### Line cook Best for: Kitchen hiring where the finish time and the training curve decide it. HELP WANTED: Line Cook, full time {Company}, {City} {Tuesday to Saturday}, {start} to {finish}, kitchen closes at {time} {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly}, a meal on every shift You can hold a section on a full Saturday. We teach the menu in {two} shifts. Come in between {times} and ask for {Name}, or text {number}. Copy this ad ### Retail sales assistant Best for: Weekend and evening cover, hired on availability more than on a CV. HELP WANTED: Retail Sales Assistant, part time {Company}, {City} {Thursday to Sunday}, {start} to {finish}, rota out {two weeks} ahead {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly}, staff discount on everything we sell No experience needed. Start on time, and be happy talking to strangers all day. Bring your availability into the shop any {weekday} morning, or message {number}. Copy this ad ### Forklift driver Best for: Warehouse shift hiring where speed of reply beats a polished application. HELP WANTED: Forklift Driver {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, {early or late} shift, {number} hours {Pay rate} an hour plus {shift premium} on lates, breaks paid Counterbalance licence and {number} year on a yard. Truck, safety kit and refresher training provided. Text {number} with your name and licence type. We call back the same day. Copy this ad ### Front desk, nights Best for: Overnight hotel cover, where the pitch is the quiet and the premium. HELP WANTED: Front Desk, Nights {Company}, {City} {Sunday to Thursday}, {time} to {time}, {number} nights a week {Pay rate} an hour plus {night premium}, paid {monthly} You run the building on your own from {time}. The night audit is taught in {three} shifts. Email {email} with the date you could start. {Name} replies to everyone. Copy this ad ### Apprentice electrician Best for: Trades hiring where the offer is the training, not the starting rate. HELP WANTED: Apprentice Electrician {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, {start} to {finish}, a {number} year apprenticeship {Pay rate} an hour, rising to {pay rate} in year two, college fees paid No experience needed. Be {age} or over and able to reach {site} by {start time}. Call {Name} on {number} between {times}, or send two lines to {email}. Copy this ad ### HVAC service technician Best for: Licensed field work, where the van and the call-out terms are the decision. HELP WANTED: HVAC Service Technician {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, {start} to {finish}, {one weekend in four} on call, paid {Pay range} an hour plus overtime and {call-out rate} {Certification} and a full licence. Van, tools and phone provided, and the van stays with you. Call {number}, or send your certificate number to {email}. We reply within {two} days. Copy this ad ### Seasonal harvest hand Best for: Short-season hiring where honesty about the work is the whole filter. HELP WANTED: Harvest Hand, {season} season {Company}, {City} {Number} weeks from {start date}, {days}, early starts {Pay rate} an hour, paid weekly, {accommodation} available at {rate} Outdoors in all weather, on your feet, lifting all day. No experience needed. Turn up at {place} at {time} any morning this week, or call {number}. Copy this ad ### Care assistant Best for: Care hiring where the barrier is the paperwork, so the ad removes it. HELP WANTED: Care Assistant {Company}, {City} {Days}, {shift times}, {number} hours a week, alternate weekends {Pay rate} an hour plus {weekend rate}, paid {monthly} No experience needed. We pay for your training and your {background check} before you start. Call {Name} on {number}, or come to the main entrance between {times}. Copy this ad ### School bus driver Best for: Term-time hiring where the hours are the offer and the licence is the gate. HELP WANTED: School Bus Driver {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, a {morning} run and an {afternoon} run, term time only {Pay rate} an hour, paid {monthly}, {number} weeks off with the schools You need a {licence category} licence. We pay for the training and the {background check}. Call {number} between {times}. Bring your licence to a ten minute chat. Copy this ad ### Groundskeeper Best for: Outdoor hiring where the year has two very different halves and the ad says so. HELP WANTED: Groundskeeper {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, {start} to {finish}, overtime offered in {summer} {Pay rate} an hour, paid {weekly}, boots and waterproofs provided Mowing, hedges and line marking in summer, clearing and gritting in winter. Machinery training provided. Call {Name} on {number}, or come to {the yard} any morning before {time}. Copy this ad ## Newspaper want ad examples, and the abbreviation key A newspaper classified was priced by the line, so employers compressed them until they read like code. People still look for newspaper job ad examples for one of two reasons: they are writing something period, or they have found an old one and cannot read it. Here is a want ad in the old style, the same six facts written out plainly, and twenty abbreviations decoded. As it would have run MACHINIST, F/T days. {Company}, {City}. Exp'd lathe & mill pref'd, will train rt. pers. {Pay rate}/hr + o/t. Ben's aft 90 days. Refs req'd. Immed. Apply in person 9 to 4 or call {number} aft 6 p.m. No agcys. EOE. The same ad, written out HELP WANTED: Machinist, full time, days {Company}, {City} {Monday to Friday}, {start} to {finish}, starting as soon as you can {Pay rate} an hour plus overtime, paid {weekly}. Benefits after 90 days. Lathe and mill experience preferred. We will train the right person. Come in between {times}, or call {number} after {time}. We hire direct, not through agencies. Copy this ad The classified above is ours, written in period style to show the abbreviations working. It is not transcribed from any newspaper. The facts are identical. What the abbreviations cost is not information, it is the reader: every contraction is a small tax on a person who is skimming forty ads in a column. The one line worth keeping is the last one. Telling people you hire direct still saves everybody a phone call. ### What the abbreviations mean - F/T Full time - P/T Part time - Exp'd Experienced - No exp nec No experience necessary - Pref'd Preferred - Rt. pers. The right person - /hr Per hour - O/T Overtime - Ben's Benefits - Sal. neg. Salary negotiable - Refs req'd References required - Lic. req'd Licence required - Immed. Immediate start - Aft After - Nr Near - Wknds Weekends - Eves Evenings - Appt By appointment - No agcys No agencies, the employer is hiring direct - EOE Equal opportunity employer ## Questions about funny job ads and help wanted ads ### What is the best help wanted ad ever? Our pick is the City of Los Angeles graphic designer post from 2018, a hiring notice that looked as though it had been drawn freehand with a mouse. It wins because the joke was aimed only at the trade it was hiring from, it cost nothing to run, and it still carried the salary band and the closing date. Per My Modern Met it drew more than 30,000 retweets. ### Do funny job ads actually get more applications? Sometimes, and the honest answer is that most of them never publish a number. Eight of the thirteen campaigns on this page carry a result line with a named source behind it, seven of those with a figure in it: more than 23,000 people applied to caretake an Irish island, and more than 1,500 applied for four Antarctic posts against 82 in the whole of the previous year. Five published nothing at all, and we say so on the card. ### What makes a job ad funny rather than just odd? Whether the joke is about the job. An ad that is funny about the specific work filters for the people who can do that work, because they are the only ones who fully get it. An ad that is funny in general entertains everybody and qualifies nobody, and it spends credibility the ad still needs for the pay, the hours and the process. ### Should a small business write a funny help wanted ad? Only if the funny thing is true. The best material a small employer has is usually not a joke, it is a fact nobody else can claim: two of you cover the whole floor, the kitchen shuts at ten and you mean it, the van goes home with the driver. Say that plainly and it will out-hire a joke. If the job genuinely is funny, say that plainly too. ### Is there a help wanted ad template I can download? Yes, on our job ad template page, free and with no email wall. It carries the help wanted ad template as an editable Word file and as a PDF, alongside the long-form job ad template it is the short version of. This page keeps the structure inline on purpose and does not ship a second copy of the files. ### How long should a help wanted ad be? Six lines, under sixty words, one way to apply. That is the whole form. If a line would not change whether somebody turns up, take it out. A full job ad for a salaried role is a different document and runs 150 to 350 words. The help wanted notice is what you write when you need a shift covered this month. ### What do the abbreviations in old newspaper want ads mean? They are line-charge compression. F/T is full time and P/T part time, exp'd is experienced, pref'd is preferred, o/t is overtime, ben's is benefits, refs req'd is references required, immed is an immediate start, aft is after, no agcys means the employer is hiring direct, and EOE is equal opportunity employer. Twenty of them are decoded on this page next to a want ad written in the old style. ### What if I want ordinary examples rather than funny ones? Then you want the long form. Funny is a small share of hiring and a large share of what gets written about it. Our job postings page carries the full-length ones with the duties, the requirements and the process written out, and the job ad template page carries the blank version with the wording already done for you. ## A funny job ad still has to be seen Every campaign on this page had a distribution plan, and in most cases the distribution was the idea. That is the part a clever headline cannot do on its own. Paste a job post into RecruitmentAds.com and it comes back as a finished ad set, video and static, inside your brand template and sized for the feeds you are going to run it in. Write the funny line yourself. We will make sure somebody sees it. Create ads from a job post[Get the free job ad template](https://recruitmentads.com/job-ad-template)