84 Lumber, the darling of the Super Bowl with its crazy 90-second ad buy and evocative story about immigration and Trump’s proposed border wall, is back with a new recruitment commercial. And this time it’s aiming even higher—at least in the geological sense.
A new 30-second spot from agency Brunner in Pittsburgh, which also made the Super Bowl ad, takes us to space, where a voiceover starts talking about NASA and the preparations for humans’ journey to Mars.
See the spot here:
The target is under-30 “problem-solvers” with some college education, and, secondarily, seasoned professionals who feel stagnated in their career, a rep for the agency tells AdFreak.
The spot breaks Monday on national TV on Fox, ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN2 and ESPNU. It will also run online via programmatic buys and retargeting of viewers who have already watched it on TV. Paid social, featuring videos and stills, will run on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.
“We suspect NASA recruits people with many of the same qualities—ambition, determination, grit and work ethic—that 84 Lumber is looking for in their candidates,” Brunner chief creative officer Rob Schapiro tells us. “And while we’re certainly not suggesting 84 Lumber is targeting potential astronauts—there’s still plenty of homes that need to be built here on Earth—we thought this was an engaging way to generate interest in jobs available at 84 Lumber.”
The notion that 84 Lumber needs candidates with unique qualities will be explored in other ways in the digital work, Schapiro says. Such qualities, in the ads, will include “the relationship skills of a professional cuddler, the unflappability of a snake milker, or the ambition of an iceberg mover.”
Of the recruitment campaign generally, Schapiro says: “At some point, society deemed that a four-year degree is the best path for everyone, unfairly stigmatizing blue-color careers. 84 Lumber wanted to do their part to end this skills gap and grow the trade industries again.”
CREDITS
Client: 84 Lumber Company
Agency: Brunner, Pittsburgh
Chief Creative Officer: Rob Schapiro
ACDs: Derek Julin, Kevin Corfield
Chief Client Officer: Jeff Maggs
Account Planner: Lauren Tedesco
Sr. Account Mgrs.: Dana Lucas, Jessica Buehner
Agency Production: FIXER Partners, New York
Exec Agency Producers: John Noble, Brad Powell
Animation/Prod. co.: Method Studios, New York
Director: Doug Luka
Music: Ring the Alarm, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Composer: Dylan Marder
Audio Post: Heard City, New York
Sound Mixer: Mike Vitacco
