MI6 advert seeks to ditch 'mythical' James Bond image

The advert’s opening shot could be straight from a James Bond movie. Sinister music plays as a shark circles. Seconds later, the scene widens to show a startled child being comforted by his mother in an aquarium.

But the message MI6 wants to convey is how the spy agency is less interested in recruiting would-be 007s than people who reflect the diversity of the UK – mothers, for example.

“We are intelligence officers, but we don’t do what you think,” the ad’s voiceover says.“It is not keeping your cool in the shark tank. It is picking up the silent cues that matter.” Then comes the payoff: “MI6 – secretly, we are just like you.”

The ad, to be shown on Channel 4 on Thursday night, marks the first time MI6 has advertised on television, though it has used cinemas in the past.

The security service’s chief, Alex Younger, told reporters at a preview event at MI6 headquarters in Vauxhall, central London: “I want this opportunity to dispel the myths that still too often see potential candidates rule themselves out.

“My message remains simple,” he added. “There is no standard MI6 officer. If you have what it takes, then apply to join us.”

MI6 is looking to take on an extra 800 people by 2021. Figures for 2016 show that the agency, which had a staff of about 2,500 in 2016, has a serious gender imbalance, with women making up 38% of non-senior staff and just a quarter of senior posts. Staff from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background represent just under 7% of non-senior staff and are not represented at all in the senior ranks.

There was a jump in applications after the poisoning of the former Russian military spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia. But MI6 said this was not a direct response to the Salisbury attack but because spies were constantly in the news. The agency has seen similar recruitment spikes at other times when the profile of spies was raised.

To help improve diversity, the agency is reviewing some of the nationality criteria. Currently, candidates must be British and have at least one parent who is British or has substantial ties to Britain. Having one foreign-born parent rules out many potential recruits.

“We are making our services’ nationality rules slightly more flexible to support our diversity agenda and enable a wider selection of candidates to join us,” a recruitment official said.

Younger, who wants greater diversity to be one of his legacies, has previously said that James Bond is a blessing and a curse for MI6: though the action film franchise offers priceless free publicity, it offers a misleading picture of life as an officer.

MI6’s head of recruitment said the aim of the new ad was to turn the Bond image on its head. “The concept was to play on the Bond image but to explain very clearly that this was not James Bond.”