• by Danielle Oster , November 6, 2025

Employers struggling to fill roles, and job-seekers frustrated by rigid requirements, could both benefit from increased access to job opportunities for workers without a bachelor degree.

Employment opportunity nonprofit Opportunity@Work launched a “Tear the Paper Ceiling” PSA campaign recognizing overlooked “skilled through alternate routes” (STARS) employees, and calling on employers to emphasize skills-based hiring practices, building on a previous 2022 “Tear the Paper Ceiling“ campaign.

Creative agency Ogilvy worked pro bono on both that effort and the new “Story Untold” campaign, which calls on employers not to “throw away talent” by discounting people with a skillset developed through alternate routes such as apprenticeships, certification programs, and on-the-job training.

Production company Prettybird helped bring the campaign to life, with PSAs directed by filmmaker Loris Russier featuring STARs both in front of, and behind the camera. 60-second and 30-second PSA videos at the center of the campaign use the metaphor of employers crumpling up and throwing away a sheet of paper, which when unfolded, reveal the face of a STAR candidate. The PSA directs audiences to a campaign “Tear the Paper Ceiling” landing page offering resources and tools for employers.

“When hiring managers cling to outdated biases and rigid checklists, they filter out the raw talent their businesses truly need. Countless candidates are discarded on paper, yet brimming with real-world skills,” added Ogilvy New York Head of Art Hernan Ibanez, in a release.

The creative concept for the campaign, employing the crumpled paper metaphor “addresses this problem from the very start,” Ibanez explained. “As it unfolds, it reveals a simple truth: the solution has been in front of them all along.”

The campaign will run nationally across donated media on platforms including TV, radio, digital, OOH, social media, and print. Spark Foundry serves as media agency of record, and the campaign received media support from partners including Indeed, Kargo, LinkedIn, and Walmart.

According to a LinkedIn study from March, 2022, hiring managers who focus on skills-based hiring are around 60% more likely to find a successful candidate.

“Story Unfold” builds on awareness raised around the issue in the three years since the launch of “Tear the Paper Ceiling,” and what the Ad Council described as the “measurable success” of that campaign, which led to more widespread use of the term — including in publications such as Bloomberg, Fortune, and the New York Times.

Since its launch “Tear the Paper Ceiling” grew its support coalition to 85 national corporate and nonprofit partners, and has driven nearly six million visits to the campaign website, supported by $120 million in donated media.

“We launched the ‘Tear the Paper Ceiling’ campaign to shine a light on the 50% of U.S. workers who are STARs and show that if you don’t have a STARs talent strategy,  you only have half a talent strategy,” Opportunity@Work CEO Byron Auguste said in a statement. “Job postings are measurably more open to STARs than in the early 2000s. "Skills-first hiring isn’t a theory—it’s starting to work where and when it is fully embraced.”