Reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s 1971 made-for-TV movie “Duel,” Arnold Worldwide’s lone foray into Super Bowl XXXVII features a driverless truck careening down a highway before hurtling explosively into a sleepy gas station.
As part of an effort to expand from Monster.com's origins as a job listings board for dot-commers and cube-farm drones, the spot assured football fans that “blue collar, white collar, no collar, now Monster works for everybody.”
Shortly after the spot aired, Monster introduced its “Hourly and Skilled” service, which was designed to match employers to non-exempt workers. That same year, Monster’s jobs search division posted $424.3 million in revenue, up 2% versus its 2002 results.
“Driver” marked Monster’s fifth consecutive Super Bowl buy since it first jumped into the Big Game back in 1999. It was directed by Harvest Media’s Baker Smith, whose roster of Super Bowl spots includes Bud Light’s “Dog Sitter” and “Product Placement” (2011) and Pepsi/iTunes’ “Bottle Songs” (2005). And it again pit Monster against perennial Super Bowl advertiser HotJobs.com ("Rainbow"), though 2003 would be the final year the two would meet in the big game; HotJobs sat out 2004 and eventually lost the war against Monster.
Agency producer: Paul Shannon. Executive producer: Bonnie Goldfarb. Group creative director: Pete Favat. Chief creative officer: Ron Lawner. Copywriters: Mike Howard, John Kearse. Art directors: Mike Martin, Lee Einhorn. Editorial: Bug Editorial. Editor: Andre Betz.
BRAND: Monster.com
YEAR: 2003
AGENCY: Arnold Worldwide
SUPERBOWL: XXXVI
QUARTER AIRED: Q2