They may well have come up with a novel way to sell advertising, but ultimately it will be the PR value of their proposition that will end up sending sales of their ad face painting service through the roof.

That’s our assessment of a new business venture conceived by two recent Cambridge graduates as a way of paying off £50,000 in student debt.

Ed Moyse and Ross Harper, who both studied at Selwyn College, Cambridge, launched Buy My Face back in October and have already raked in more than £25,000 by selling their faces as advertising space to clients such as Airfix, Paddy Power and accountancy firm Ernst and Young.

The pair of 22-year-old entrepreneurs, who have been mates since their very first day at Uni, started out by letting ad space on their faces to friends and family for just £1 per day.

But the idea has proved so popular that the twosome are now charging somewhat more lucrative clients as much as £400 a day and are starting to get enquiries from other hard-up students looking to offer their faces for a daily fee.

Ernst and Young, the sponsors of the Buy My Face website, have been delighted with the response to the ads, which they have been using as part of this year’s milkround recruitment drive.

But we reckon the duo’s success so far is only the tip of the iceberg and that things can only get better now that their enterprising exploits have courted the attention of the national newspapers.

And, while we wouldn’t personally be seen dead with any advertising slogan painted across our ugly mugs, we nevertheless have to hold our hands up to an ingenious marketing idea that simply cannot fail to grab your attention.