In October 2020, an advertising campaign by the UK government showed a young black dancer, hair pulled back into a tight bun, sitting on the hard bench of a scruffy studio, her right leg elegantly lifted mid-air to allow her to tighten the straps of her pointe shoe. Branded with the logos of CyberFirst and HM Government, the slogan on the ad read: 'Fatima's next job could be in cyber. (she just doesn't know it yet). Rethink. Reskill. Reboot.'. Although apparently commissioned by the National Cyber Security Centre before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (Dawson, 2020), the ad appeared against the backdrop of the Winter Economy Plan that was focusing the financial support of the Job Support Scheme on 'viable jobs' (Gov.uk, 24 September 2020), and so seemed not so much to 'encourag[e] people from all walks of life to think about a career in cyber security', as the then Secretary of State of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Oliver Dowden hastened to explain (Dowden, 2020), but to specifically target artists and compel them to rethink their life choices. More than that, as Marianka Swain was quick to point out, choosing a woman of colour to be the ad's 'Fatima' seemed to specifically take aim at those members of the artistic community who, because of their race, gender and socio-economic background, were already facing multiple structural barriers, suggesting that they 'must not entertain aspirations above [their] station' (Swain, 2020). Within hours of its publication, and overshadowing the announcement of the allocation of '£257 million to save 1385 theatres, arts venues, museums and cultural organisations across England' (Gov.uk, 12 October 2020), the ad thus became a lightning rod for the ' "viability" rhetoric' concerning financial support for freelance artists during the 5