Homeless CV campaign doubles street paper sales in Stockholm

After a 22% drop in sales, INSP street paper Stockholm Situation partnered up with advertising agency INGO to create a moving series of adverts, in an attempt to boost sales of their street paper during the bitter Swedish winter.

Homeless vendors were invited to write their own personal CVs which were then displayed as posters in the Stockholm Metro, accompanied by a title page which read 'It takes someone special to sell Situation Stockholm'.

The candidly honest resumes document each sellers own story; their education, work and life experience. Where there should be an address, the words 'no permanent' serve as a stark reminder of the precarious position that vendors are in and the challenge of finding work with no fixed address.

Word of the campaign spread rapidly through social media and even made the national news. Most importantly however, sales of the magazine increased by 101.5% with the December issue of the magazine selling out a week early.