CareerBuilder wants you to make its Super Bowl ad for next year

CareerBuilder is hailing its idea to solicit ad ideas from the proles for its 2010 Super Bowl spot as a "bold new marketing strategy," when it's really a tacit admission that the ads they've commissioned from real agencies were mostly terrible. (Yeah, the chimp stuff was OK, but its 2009 entry, shown here, was pretty damn depressing.) Nevertheless, they've set up a contest at HireMyTVAd.com, where the public "can submit 25-second videos to be considered for CareerBuilder's return to the Big Game." The winning ad will net its creator $100,000, and CareerBuilder will develop his or her idea in-house. Not bad. Participants should keep a general theme in mind—it will affect whether their ad plays near the beginning of the game (comedic physical injury), in the middle (schmaltzy feel-good pap), or at the end (grab bag, and repeats of earlier ads). This probably can't hurt CareerBuilder's image, anyway, and it might actually build some guy or girl's career for much less than the cost of a legit ad agency. Or better, it might coax Eagle Man out of retirement.

—Posted by David Kiefaber