LONDON (Brand Republic) – Green Party US presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who is currently being sued for parodying the “priceless” TV commercial for MasterCard, has aped another ad, for recruitment website Monster.com, in a similar way.
The ads created by Minneapolis-based North Woods Advertising feature children voicing adult thoughts, as in the Monster.com spots, but this time they are focused on their governmental, rather than career, future. The ads will air across 30 US states.
“When I grow up, I want the government to have the same problems as it has today,” says one child. Other lines are: “I want to vote for the lesser of two evils”; “I want to be lied to”; “I want to be apathetic”; and “I want tax breaks for the very rich”.
Earlier this year, MasterCard reacted with a lawsuit after it failed to get a ban on the Nader ad which ran over the summer.
The MasterCard ad focused on the monetary value of family-orientated activities before ending on one which was “priceless”. Nader’s ads, also by North Woods, featured clips of rival presidential candidates George Bush and Al Gore, as a voiceover totted up the cost of their campaigns before highlighting Nader’s pledge to find the truth as “priceless”.
However, there has been no similar action from Monster.com. Edward Boches, chief creative officer of Mullen which created the ad for Monster.com, said he was “flattered” that his work had such recognition.
“They did not do it because they were stealing an idea, but because they believed there was equity inherent in the original commercial,” he said, although he admitted he was disappointed that Nader had been unable to come up with an idea as fresh as his policies.
MasterCard said it would do “whatever it took” to protect its campaign. Last year it sued cable television network HBO, owned by Time Warner, for running a comedy series which also parodied the “priceless” ads.