The advertisement «Men wanted for hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in event of success.» has been a marketing litterature classic for ages.
Irish polar explorer Ernest Shackleton is said to have received 5000 replies by mail.
We write «said to have», because even though the men wanted ad is broadly referenced in biographies and by relatives, nobody has seen the original advertisement yet. The ad you seehere was created by graphical designer John Hyatt. That it’s not the real deal, can be ascertained by – among other things – the fact that he’s spelling honour the american way; honor.
The story of the hunt for the original advertisement and the $100 reward is an exciting little tale of polar history, crowdsourcing and haystack needles that’s been going on for 11 years now. Read it at The Antarctic Circle.
This is an English language version of the article Fredagssnack: Jakten på en polfarerannonse