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.
“One of Them Days” and “Mufasa: The Lion King” In Tight Race For Top Spot In Weekend Box Office
The Keke Palmer buddy comedy "One of Them Days" opened in first place on the North American box office charts on a particularly slow Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
The R-rated Sony release earned $11.6 million from 2,675 theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday, beating Disney's "Mufasa: The Lion King" by a hair. By the end of Monday's holiday, "Mufasa" will have the edge, however.
"One of Them Days" cost only $14 million to produce, which it is expected to earn by Monday. The very well-reviewed buddy comedy stars Palmer and SZA as friends and roommates scrambling to get money for rent before their landlord evicts them. Notably it's the first Black female-led theatrical comedy since "Girls Trip" came out in 2017 and it currently carries a stellar 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the marketplace was also quite weak overall. The total box office for Friday, Saturday and Sunday will add up to less than $80 million, according to data from Comscore, making it one of the worst Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekends since 1997.
"For an individual film like 'One of Them Days' this was a great weekend," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "You can still find success stories within what is overall a low grossing weekend for movie theaters."
The Walt Disney Co.'s "Mufasa" was close by in second place with $11.5 million from the weekend, its fifth playing in theaters. Globally, the Barry Jenkins-directed prequel has made $588 million. It even beat a brand-new offering, the Blumhouse horror "Wolf Man," which debuted in third place with $10.6 million from 3,354 North American theaters.
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