Human billboards to pay off debts

LONDON: In their scruffy jeans and trainers, Ross Harper and Ed Moyse look just like any other British 22-year-olds -- except for the words "Buy My Face" and "Sold" emblazoned brightly on their faces.

Standing in the middle of London's shopping mecca Oxford Circus, the two Cambridge University graduates attract more than a few curious glances from the hoards of passers-by.

"How much?" a young man calls out from a gaggle of Spanish tourists, to which Harper, a former neuroscience student, replies that it's #100 ($160, 120 euros) to hire the two faces as advertising space for the day.

"A hundred pounds?" The tourists throw up their hands in mock outrage before bursting into laughter.

There may be no customers here, but others are queuing to hire the two human billboards.

Harper and Moyse have made over #30,000 since setting up Buy My Face in October in a bid to pay off their student debts.

The enterprising duo plan to launch the business, which works by directing online traffic to advertisers' websites through their own entertaining site, on the international market in May.

"We've had interest from places like Hong Kong, Canada, Australia, the United States, and all over Europe," Harper said.

With record youth unemployment of 22 percent in Britain, and even graduates from prestigious universities such as Cambridge struggling to find work as the economy stalls, theirs is an unusual success story.

"We were coming up with ideas for what we wanted to do after we left university," said economics graduate Moyse. "And we thought, 'The job market's really tough at the moment. Why don't we try a creative project for a year?'"

The pair, who each borrowed #25,000 from the government to fund their studies, came up with Buy My Face over a pot of instant noodles last year while brainstorming business ideas that required only minimal investment.

"We're #50,000 in debt -- we didn't want to invest thousands more into a business," said Moyse, adding that they spent just #100 on face-paint.

Since October 1, he and Harper have managed to "sell" their faces every single day -- to large companies such as Irish bookmaker Paddy Power and accountants Ernst & Young, as well as smaller firms.

"On the very first day we sold them for #1," Moyse recalled, turning to Harper and adding: "Not a very good graduate wage, was it?" (AFP)