The Boston agency Mullen and their client American Greetings took advantage of people desperate for work and posted a fake job listing online, they included the following job listing online for a “director of operations” position at a company called Rehtom Inc..
• Standing up almost all the time
• Constantly exerting yourself
• Working from 135 to unlimited hours per week
• Degrees in medicine, finance and culinary arts necessary
• No vacations
• The work load goes up on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s and other holidays
• No time to sleep
I very much understand that this was an ‘oh so cute’ way for American Greetings to recognize that Mothers Day is fast approaching, however is this going too far? The job market is down, people are looking for work, people might get their hopes up by having an interviewed scheduled, their confidence boosted by receiving a call back from a company, spending the time, effort, and energy in getting dressed up in order to make a good impression, only to have their hopes dashed and destroyed by realizing that they were SCAMMED and apart of a commercial.
I sincerely hope that they were paid for their time.
The job ad got 2.7 million impressions from paid ad placements.
Here’s the credits so you know who to blame.
CREDITS
Project: World’s Toughest Job
Agency: Mullen, Boston
Chief Creative Officer: Mark Wenneker
Executive Creative Directors: Tim Vaccarino, Dave Weist
Creative Director: Jon Ruby
Associate Creative Director, Copy: Andrea Mileskiewicz
Associate Creative Director, Art: Blake Winfree
Executive Director of Integrated Production: Liza Near
Head of Broadcast: Zeke Bowman
Producer: Vera Everson
Account Director: Jessica Zdenek
Account Supervisor: Laila Lynch
Director of Digital Strategy: Eric Williamson
Senior Brand Strategist: Ryan Houts
Production Company: Caviar
Director: Amir Farhang
Executive Producer: Valeria Maldini
Producer: Jason Manz
Director of Photography: Brian Rigney Hubbard
Editing, Visual Effects: PS260
Editor: J.J. Lask
Assistant Editor: Colin Edelman
Senior Producer: Laura Lamb Patterson
Lead Visual Effects Artist: Patrick Lavin
Assistant Artist: Matt Posey
Audio Post: Soundtrack
Sound Design, Mixer: Mike Secher
Music: Human
Casting: House Casting
Casting Agent: Shawn Alston
Client: American Greetings
Executive Director, Marketing: Alex Ho