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Trade Me Jobs lays on the cheese with musical ode to Mondays—UPDATED

Whether it’s the housewife who smiles while cleaning the toilet, or the teenage boy who gets the girl after putting on some deodorant, advertising is renowned for showing unrealistic situations. But the latest campaign from Trade Me Jobs might just take the cake. 

Reversing the well-worn Thank God it’s Friday trope and riffing on the cheesy musical intros of retro sitcoms, the ad shows a bunch of people dancing their way into work on a Monday, overjoyed at the prospect of another day of drudgery, gridlock and meetings (and lording it over all the other depressed worker drones). 

As it says on Facebook: “Wohoo! It’s Monday! Is yours awesome? If not, it might be time to start looking.” 

“The ad has about 15 eager Trade Me staff as extras and one of the main characters is our very own Jeff Hunkin (dancing dude in the suit),” says Trade Me’s Logan Mudge. “… We know Mondays can be fun days and that’s why we chose to take a positive spin on a day that has a bad rap – we also want people to know that if they’re having bad Mondays Trade Me Jobs is the place to change it.” 

Trade Me Jobs worked with EightyOne, Stem Creative and MBM on the campaign and it is running across TV, outdoor, digital, online video and ambient channels.

EightyOne and Stem Creative were also behind Kiwibank’s KB Series featuring Jamie Curry. And Stem Creative created a retro aerobics video for IRD earlier this year. And while most wouldn’t associate lycra, pastel and aerobics with tax collection, the cheese seemed to work. According to a story on Stuff, the IRD handed out $427 million in tax refunds – an increase of $50m over last year.

“The department has hailed the three versions of the 2015 Tax Refund Workout video a success, despite Revenue Minister Todd McClay admitting it “wasn’t necessarily to my taste” 

Inland Revenue marketing and communications manager Andrew Stott said the refunds campaign, which cost a total of $418,000, had been criticised for “being flash”, but it had been successful.

It attracted 147,000 more visitors to the campaign web page than in 2014, and resulted in a surge of tax refunds from the 2014 total of $378m. 

“The video is deliberately cheesy and has drawn mixed reactions but it’s about encouraging mostly young people to go and get their tax refund online, so you can have a bit of fun with it. It draws attention, rather than being relentlessly boring,” Stott said.

A few years back, TradeMe Jobs launched its first-ever brand campaign via JWT that showed nominative determinism was dead. Mr Barber didn’t have to cut hair, Mr Smith didn’t have to spend his days at the forgery and Miss Ramsbottom didn’t need to have anything to do with sheeps’ bums. And a 15” spot showed that the tie you wear doesn’t necessarily decide your employment fate anymore. 

Trade Me points to Nielsen figures that show, on average, more New Zealanders have visited Trade Me Jobs than any other New Zealand job site in the 12 months to May 2015. 

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