Osama Bin Beach Bum
By ANDREW GREINER
Updated 9:31 AM EST, Thu, Feb 5, 2009
That ultimate beach bum job, the Australian one with the $100,000 salary and no real responsibility, is so attractive that even Osama Bin Laden considered a career-change.
Ok, not really. But among the 11,000 video applications that streamed into www.islandreefjob.com for the Hamilton Island position, was a spoof video application from the world's top terrorist.
And it's pretty funny, in a creepy sort of way.
The pranksters who submitted the tape, which was quickly rejected by Queensland Tourism as inappropriate, used old footage of Bin Laden and added a new jabberwocky voice-over and silly subtitles.
"Hello, Osama from Afghanistan here," the subtitles read. "I'm the ideal candidate. I'm outgoing and fun loving. I enjoy the outdoors and sandy areas. I've got experience working with videos and delegating tasks and experience with large-scale event coordination. My interests include cooking, arts and crafts and renovating. You can contact me on Facebook at 'Bin Laden Osama.'"
The job, part of a $1.7 million marketing campaign has drawn applicants from 162 countries so far. Some are wacky, like the video of the woman who had the great barrier reef tattooed on her arm or the one who offered to do all of Australia's laundry. But the Bin Laden tape was too far over the top.
"While Tourism Queensland encourages people to be creative in their applications, they have to meet the selection criteria, including appropriate content, if they want to be considered for the job," said spokeswoman for Queensland Tourism.
The application period runs until Feb. 22.
First Published: Feb 5, 2009 7:53 AM EST
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