31,000 votes cast in the race for Screw You Recession's Summer Intern; Richard Branson adds his fave five wild cards into the Top Ten, Waterloo Student D.J. Demers amoungst Branson picks

TORONTO - Sure, being the caretaker of your own tropical island for a year might sound like the best job in the world, but what about those pesky tan lines? The irritating feeling of sand in your board shorts? The voting is over in the race for the second best job in the world, and the Top Ten recession-savvy entries, as voted by Canadians and Richard Branson himself, have been chosen in the race for Virgin Mobile's Screw You Recession! Summer Intern.

A whopping 31,000 votes were cast over the past four weeks with the top five making it to the next round. Virgin Group Founder (and recessionista in his own right) Richard Branson was so impressed by the creativity and awesome energy of the video entries that he also selected his own fave five videos. All ten recession revolutionaries will now move on to the interview round before the big winner is announced during the week of June 8, 2009.

"I was thrilled to see how many of the video entries were spot on about how to help young people survive the recession and how extremely creative they were at the same time," said Richard Branson. "That kind of passion, fun, and outside-the-box-thinking is exactly what Virgin is all about, and I'm very interested to see which winning intern we'll be working with."

From mock hip-hop videos to bikini-clad beach interviews to cash-saving superheroes, the search for the Screw You Recession! Summer Intern brought in 50 top-notch entries. While people got passionate about the summer job hunt, they also poked a little fun at the lengths people are going to in the search for work during the recession.

"We're totally blown away by the passion and fun all the potential interns put into their videos," says Virgin Mobile's Chief Marketing Officer, Nathan Rosenberg. "The leading candidates changed almost every hour over the past few weeks and we saw a massive surge in votes on the final day of voting as the candidates' campaigns went into overdrive. There's clearly been a lot of Facebooking going on."

"With so many hot entries, and 31,000 votes, it's clear that the Screw You Recession! Summer Intern Search is the 2nd best job in the world right now," continued Rosenberg, "But that doesn't mean our Intern will have it easy. Though they will have a laptop, a BlackBerry(R) 3G smartphone, and a noticeable lack of poisonous tropical spiders, they'll also need to be the voice, eyes, and ears of young Canadians during these tough economic times. They'll be on the recession frontlines looking for deals, tips to save cash, and helping followers of www.screwyourecession.ca get into top chic-onomic financial shape."

Before going through Virgin Mobile's official interview process with a panel of recession experts, candidates had to show Virgin Mobile they've got what it takes by posting their personal video at www.screwyourecessionintern.com and explaining why they should be Canada's top choice for the job. The five finalists, as voted by Canadians, plus Richard Branson's fave five have now been selected for interviews with Virgin Mobile. Interviews will take place over the next week with the winner announced during the week of June 8. Stay tuned!

Canada's Top Five Candidates

- Thaddeus Bolton (Peterborough, ON)

- Ryan Cassidy (Port Coquitlam, BC)

- Christina Chu (Toronto, ON)

- Romi Levine (Toronto, ON)

- Lucas Meyer (Toronto, ON)

Richard's Fave Five

- D.J. Demers (Waterloo, ON)

- Andrea Guernsey (Toronto, ON)

- Melissa Janke (Burnaby, BC)

- Trevor McManus (Surrey, BC)

- George Panayotou (Toronto, ON)