PETA may not be amused, but that hasn’t stopped more than 800,000 people from replaying CareerBuilder’s Super Bowl commercial.
They’ve posted more than 100 messages on YouTube, saying things like “The only commercial that actually made me? laugh hard,” and “That? is the funniest commercial. I love it.” To be sure, there are some tasteless comments, and several from individuals complaining about the plight of captive chimps.
But the Parking Lot monkey commercial is on its way to being as big a hit as the original monkey ads were back in 2005 when CareerBuilder made its Super Bowl debut. Then, the three commercials ranked in the top 10 of the most popular game show ads. A later addition to the campaign, Monk-e-Mail went viral, with tens of millions of users sending messages in a matter of months.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B-Vu94Sd4M
In an effort to thwart CareerBuilder’s latest efforts, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is promoting Monster with an ad on its homepage that says “Even Monsters Don’t Abuse Animals. Visit Monster.com for a Cruelty-Free Job Search.”
“Monster pledged five years ago never to use great apes in its commercials, so that’s who compassionate jobseekers need to support,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “Those other guys support an industry that takes ape infants away from their loving mothers and ends up dumping them at seedy roadside zoos.”
Monster didn’t respond to an email about the PETA effort. CareerBuilder had no comment. In the past, CareerBuilder said the chimpanzees in the ad “were treated with respect.
“During the production of our ad, we followed strict guidelines to ensure our chimpanzee stars were treated well and not harmed in any way. We hired top trainers known to provide the highest standard of care for their animals.”
Stats provided by CareerBuilder suggest that — protest or not — the ad has been effective. Besides the post-gamed views of the ad, it spurred a 12 percent increase in traffic to CareerBuilder on the Monday and Tuesday after Super Bowl Sunday. The number of Facebook fans was up 410 percent, and the company ranked 8th in media coverage of its ad.