From next month, UK intelligence agencies are placing ads in a series of espionage adventures--including Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent--in the hope of attracting new recruits, reports The Times (British Newspaper).

Government Communications Headquarters, which is responsible for surveillance intelligence work, is hoping that virtual spying might give gamers a taste for the real thing.

A spokesperson for GCHQ said, "We find increasingly we have to use less conventional means of attracting people...to go beyond glossy brochures and milk-round stalls."

GCHQ is not the only intelligence agency to resort to unconventional means to nab recruits. Recently MI5 has been advertising in places such as The Guardian newspaper, Cosmopolitan women's magazine, and the sides of London buses. However, this is the first time an intelligence agency is known to have used video games as a recruiting ground.