By: Joe Nicholson Monster.com Takes Advantage Of Florida Mayhem
Eight major dailies ran full-page ads Friday for Monster.com that featured head shots of George W. Bush and Al Gore. "Getting a better job shouldn't be this tough," said the caption under photos of the deadlocked presidential candidates.
The ad ran in The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and The Dallas Morning News. The ad was created by Boston-based Arnold Worldwide, which picked up the Monster.com account last month.
With the media providing minute-by-minute updates on the political mud wrestling between Bush and Gore, executives of Monster.com and the agency interrupted discussions of their long-term ad plans to wonder whether they could exploit the Florida developments. "You guys see anything you can do with this media hype?" asked Monster.com chief executive Jeff Taylor, according to Pete Favat, group creative director with Arnold. Maynard, Mass.-based Monster.com is owned by TMP, based in New York.
Favat and Ron Lawner, Arnold's chairman and chief creative officer, and their staff put the ad together after their conversation with Taylor. The one big worry was getting sued, Favat said. "Just using their images - the thing is you never know because it's such a litigious society," he said. But Arnold's lawyers gave a green light.
"I think that [Bush and Gore] have all their lawyers tied up in Florida," Favat quipped.
Francis J. Kelly III, Arnold's president and chief operating officer, said of the Bush-Gore ad: "We might run it one or two more times because people like it so much." But Kelly added, "If either one of those guys gets the job, then we'll have to do something different."
Joe Nicholson (jnicholson@editorandpublisher.com) is an associate editor for E&P.
Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.
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