I like the slightly surreal nature of this commercial for The Ladders as well as the execution. But I had to watch the commercial three times before I understood how the image of men in jeeps hunting chairs in the wild relates to the message: “We only want the big jobs.”
The Ladders is a company that only lists jobs that pay over 100 thousand dollars a year. Up until the end of the commercial, you may think it’s an ad for a company that sells office furniture.
Maybe you’ll understand it on the first shot (no pun intended). As an advertiser, if you’re using a visual metaphor, it should make sense without the viewer having to strain to figure out both the message and the product.
In this case, we have a clever, visually compelling commercial that ultimately misses the mark (no pun intended).
