Toronto agency john st. launched a spot promoting Miami Ad School Toronto called “The Interview.”
The 60-second spot promote the ad school with a depiction of a fawning interviewer going over a prospective employee’s work. His patronizing tone elevates over the course of the spot from “You did this, all by yourself?” to calling it the best work he’s ever seen to coming pretty close to treating him like a puppy at the ad’s conclusion.
The message? “You don’t get anywhere by being babied,” as text reads at the spot’s conclusion, implying that you’ll get the kind of criticism and constructive feedback you need to improve your craft at Miami Ad School. Aside from the text at the end of the spot, the message is hammered home by the response of the actor listening to the patronizing praise. Over the course of the spot his expression and demeanor changes from flattered to flabbergasted to (justifiably) kind of annoyed.
While the spot makes its point about the need for feedback and criticism, we have to wonder if it would have been stronger if it had spent sometime contrasting the interview scene with what prospective students could expect from The Miami Ad School. The interview portion could easily have trimmed some time off for that addition.
Credits:
Advertising Agency: john st., Toronto, Canada
Creative Directors: Stephen Jurisic, Angus Tucker
Copywriter: Martin Stinnissen
Art Director: Jenny Luong
Account Lead: Melissa Tobenstein
Producers: Raquel Rose, Lauren Sloan
Director: Taso Alexander
Director of Photography: Sasha Moric
Grip: Justin Yaroski
Wardrobe: Kristin Lapensee
Hair & Makeup: Cherie Snow
Script Supervisor: Sydney Kondruss
Sound: Scott Taylor
Sound Editing/Mixing: Keen Music
Editor: Michael Barker, Brian Herzog/ Relish
Colour: Red Lab
Casting: Jigsaw Casting