This :15 opens on three construction workers standing next to one another. "Hotjobs has three thousand local jobs," says a voiceover, as three bright red toolboxes fall from the sky and into the arms of the first worker. He catches the heavy stack and staggers a bit under the weight.
"Monster has five thousand local jobs," the voiceover continues. The second worker catches five toolboxes that also fall from above.
"We have thirteen thousand…" the voiceover says, as the third worker intelligently makes a sidestep to avoid being crushed by 13 plummeting toolboxes representing the number of listings on WashingtonPost.com.
But it turns out that the third man hasn’t quite escaped the falling boxes. A 14th toolbox unexpectedly descends, conking the man on the head and knocking him out cold, as the voiceover concludes with "…plus."
This human bar graph concludes with an end tag containing the Washington Post.com address, accompanied by the slogan, "The mother lode of jobs in Washington."
"Tool Box" was directed by Adam Jones of New York-based The Joneses for agency AdWorks, Washington, D.C. "I was attracted to this concept because of its simplicity and its punch," explained Jones. "It uses a clear visual metaphor that is memorable and concise."
Pam Rohs executive produced for The Joneses, with Jenny Wolk serving as producer. The spot was shot on stage at The Studios at Las Colinas, Texas, by DP Adam Santelli.
The AdWorks creative team consisted of creative director Mark Greenspun, senior art director Bill Cutter, senior writer Lisa Biskin and producer Sandy Mislang.
Alan Dubin of Rhinoceros Editorial, New York, served as offline/online editor, with Martina Koenke as assistant editor. Colorist was Mica Kirz of Nice Shoes, New York. For rhinofx, New York, Inferno artists were Ronan Sharabani and John Budion, with Linda Gallagher producing. Audio engineer/mixer was Jody Nazzaro of Tonic, New York.
Stephen Shirk of Pink Noise, New York, was sound designer, with Michael Maxwell serving as executive producer.
