When I Grow Up

Monster.com1999

When I Grow Up is a 1999 30-second television commercial for Monster.com, created by Mullen, Boston.

Video via YouTube — “Monster.com - "When I Grow Up"”, uploaded by Alex Lasarenko · Watch on YouTube

The line

When I grow up, I want to be a yes-man.

Why it works

The dot-com era's one unarguably great Super Bowl ad. Children stare into the camera and deadpan their dreams: "When I grow up, I want to file... all day." "I want to claw my way up to middle management." "I want to be a yes-man." The gap between childhood ambition and adult resignation sells the job site without ever showing it. Aired during the January 1999 Super Bowl when Monster was an unknown against giant classified sections, it is studied for selling a service by dramatizing the pain it solves, for the discipline of black-and-white restraint amid Super Bowl bombast, and as the spot that made director Bryan Buckley the Super Bowl's most prolific filmmaker.

Techniques

  • Humour Children deadpan bleak career ambitions into the camera, such as filing all day or clawing up to middle management, to darkly comic effect.
  • Pathos The gap between childhood dreams and adult resignation stirs uncomfortable recognition, selling the job site by dramatising the pain it solves.

Sources · 2

  1. Monster Revisits Its 'When I Grow Up' Super Bowl Ad, 20 Years Later Muse by Clios · musebyclios.com
  2. Wieden in Monster.com Semis (credits the 'lauded' spot to Mullen) Adweek · adweek.com

Updated

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