While job hunting takes on considerable weight and seriousness in light of rising unemployment and global economic woes, the :60 titled “Tips” that CareerBuilder.com debuted on the Super Bowl via Wieden+Kennedy, Portland, Ore., definitely tickles the funnybone, keeping with the client’s signature humor over the years while positioning the online site as a conduit to seeking helpful tips and real leads for gainful employment.
Directed by Tom Kuntz of bicoastal/international MJZ, the Super Bowl spot offers us several indicators that you’re in the wrong job and need to make a change. We open on a woman, for instance, who’s so distraught that she’s primal screaming in her car as she drives into her workplace parking lot. Other “tip-offs” that you should look for another gig include fantasizing about being elsewhere (we see the woman riding a dolphin through ocean waves), being regularly ridiculed by fellow workers (a man in deadpan fashion greets a guy who’s seated at a workstation with a cheerful “hey, dummy”), sitting next to an undesirable coworker (who’s dressed in Speedo swim trunks while clipping his toenails) and daydreaming about punching small animals (with a small cuddly, koala bear–who’s wearing eyeglasses–on the receiving end). These different tip-offs are recited and continually repeated in a Twelve Days of Xmas-like (yet not sing songy) fashion, heightening the absurdity as well as the all too real need felt by many that a change of job is imperative.
The end tag slogan “Start Building” appears on screen.
The W+K team included executive creative directors Mark Fitzloff and Susan Hoffman, creative directors Jason Bagley and Danielle Flagg, copywriter Eric Kallman, art director Craig Allen and producer Sarah Shapiro.
David Zander and Jeff Scruton exec produced for MJZ with Scott Kaplan serving as producer. The DP was Bryan Newman.
Editor was Gavin Cutler of Mackenzie Cutler, New York.
Method Studios, Santa Monica, was the VFX house, with animatronic animals from Stan Winston Studios, Van Nuys, Calif.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More