Thousands in Quest to Get Real Cool Job : Marketing: Ben & Jerry’s search to fill its top executive post draws a huge response, some of it superhuman.

A medical librarian bared all in her application. Superman said he’d give up his day job. And a variety of children and pets have nominated their parents, masters and themselves.

Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., the decidedly unconventional maker of premium ice cream, is on the hunt for a chief executive to replace co-founder Ben Cohen. He plans to let someone with a stronger business background lead the growing company.

By last Friday, 19,352 adults, children, super-heroes and animals had sent in applications. More were waiting to be counted.

“Help! I’m stuck with ‘Mr. and Mrs. Fast Track’ in California,” one toddler crayoned on the back of a poster-size photograph of himself next to a Holstein cow. “They need new careers and I need a real back yard.”

It all started when Cohen said he planned to get out of day-to-day management in favor of marketing and other pursuits. But in typical Ben & Jerry’s style, Cohen and co-founder Jerry Greenfield turned the search into a marketing event.

The two unveiled their “Yo! I Want to Be CEO” campaign a month ago, asking anyone interested in becoming chief executive to send a 100-word essay and a lid from their favorite Ben & Jerry’s flavor.

Ben & Jerry’s is hedging its bets, though: It hired an executive search firm to supplement the contest. But that hasn’t kept the applications, both serious and tongue-in-cheek, from flowing in.

An office in Ben & Jerry’s headquarters that was converted into “CEO Command Center” is stuffed with applications from all over the country and at least a dozen other nations.

“Some are three-dimensional, some are two-dimensional, some are in a dimension beyond this universe,” company spokesman Rob Michalak said.

Take the medical librarian, for example. Her resume and 100-word essay have already been recorded and filed away. But her photo is getting lasting attention. In it, she lies surrounded by strategically stacked piles of medical textbooks and references.

She’s not wearing a stitch.

“We’re discovering people of incredible talents,” Michalak said.

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Superhuman talents too.

A Superman suit sent by Jack Ross Williams of Santa Barbara dangles from the ceiling in one corner of the cramped command center.

“Due to recent layoffs at a major metropolitan newspaper, I am looking to replace my day job,” Williams wrote. “After hours I spend my time fighting to protect truth, justice and the American Way. Even when I’m not using my powers I love to work hard and have a great time.

“Ideally, I seek a position which allows me the opportunity to provide super premium ice cream products with maximum value and satisfaction to a deserving planet.”

Williams, 42, says he has the skills to be CEO and is serious about landing a job at the $150-million company. He’s an executive at a temporary employment company in California and has undergraduate and graduate degrees in business administration.

Other applicants included dogs and cats. Some wanted the job themselves; others suggested their owners.

Their only incentive to apply, according to a poster promoting the search: “A rejection suitable for framing.”

But the burning question remains: Will someone really land the job through the contest? Or is this just more Ben & Jerry’s hype?

“Yes, somebody could actually be included in the process that comes to us by way of the poster campaign essay contest,” Michalak said.

That’s far from a practical way to land a leader, said James Kennedy, publisher of “The Directory of Executive Recruiters” in Fitzwilliam, N.H.

“It’s just a publicity-driven way,” he said, “and they’re masters at publicity.”