The radio adverts were produced in collaboration with Ogilvy & Mather (O&M) Cape Town, and the TVCs were produced in collaboration with O&M Cape Town and Egg Films.

Following on from the success of its last TVCs which were also produced by O&M Cape Town, the new TVCs and radio ads – which launched at the beginning of January – are once again based on the premise that we define ourselves largely by what we do.

Nadia Boucher Coombe, head of Marketing for 24.com, explains: “We received a great response to last year’s TVCs and we felt that there was opportunity to explore this theme further through a fresh set of hilarious scenarios, as it resonated so well with our audience. The adverts again tap into the insight that it can be very distressing not being proud of what we spend a large part of our lives doing – albeit in a very humorous way.”

Two TVCs were produced, which were shot by Egg Films. In one, an injured man is seen lying in a hospital bed, talking to a woman he is obviously romantically interested in. When asked what he does for a living, he starts purposefully coughing uncontrollably in an effort to deflect the question. The TVC features well-known local comedian Schalk Bezuidenhout and was shot in the old Woodstock Hospital.

In the second TVC, a man and his new beau are at his family’s home for dinner. The nervous young woman – Claire – is tentatively enjoying the gathering, until she is asked the seemingly innocuous question: “What do you do for living?” Claire proceeds to stuff a chunk of bread into her mouth to avoid her answer being heard.

Luca Gallarelli, managing director for O&M Cape Town, says: “The humour in the concept lies largely in the actors cast, so we spent a great deal of time in auditions searching for the ‘right’ people. We needed actors that would be able to accurately convey the shame we feel when we are not proud of what we do, which is something most of us will have identified with at some point in our working lives.”

“The Careers24 ads remind us – in an amusing way – that if we are not proud of what we do, to rather take the initiative to find a job we can be proud of,” concludes Coombe.

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