The MullenLowe Group created a campaign called World’s toughest Job for American Greetings. The campaign was designed to urge and persuade people to make their mom a Mother’s Day card using the American Greetings Card store. This was a real challenge because as per data, the insight was that only 50% of people buy their mom a card. And even though moms have the toughest job in the world, they don’t treat it like a real job.

The campaign commenced by creating a fake job ad seeking a candidate to perform all the duties of a mother, including “standing up almost all the time”, “constantly exerting yourself” and “working from 135 to unlimited hours per week.”

The ad showed many real job interviews for ‘Director of Operations’, it also filmed real interviews of candidates who applied for the job. The candidates described the job as inhuman, all-encompassing. Twenty four interviews were taken and recorded. The job was exhausting as it had no breaks, little time to sleep and eat and most importantly this job wouldn’t offer any remuneration of any kind.

The interviews started with humour and got poignant and serious at the end when the interviewer revealed that the job is filled and such a tough job exists in real life where there is no vacation, no free time, constantly in work mode, unlimited hours of work, etc. that is the job of a “MOTHER.” That is how mothers are in real life. It is the role they play which is the toughest and they do it without any complaint.

Indeed, being a mother was the toughest job in the world. It made people realize that billions of women throughout the globe who are mothers are made to sacrifice their needs and desires. They are made to choose between family, children and financial stability or juggle and manage all of them simultaneously without any compensation or remuneration.

The most beautiful part of the campaign was that the candidates who appeared for the interview realized how difficult and thankless a mother’s job is and how efficiently she performs her duties without any expectations in return. Their reaction to the campaign when reality and the struggles of a mother dawned on them was priceless and emotional. Some agreed “Oh God! Mothers are the best!” some said, “I love my mother”, while some reiterated, “Thank you Mom” etc.

Similar Blog Post: Campaign on Equality by Nike

The YouTube video received 21 million views, the earned media effort for #WorldsToughestJob increased American Greetings Card store orders by 20%, user base by 40% and met sales goals for the entire year, not just the Mother’s Day period for which it was designed.

Check out more Public Relations Campaigns

The video became an overnight viral success. Without any support or help of paid media, the YouTube video achieved almost six million views in the first two days. It also became the #1 Trend on Facebook, the #1Worldwide Trending video on YouTube, a Top 10 Trend on Twitter and the most shared article in the history of Adweek magazine website.

In just a week of the video’s release, it amassed 15 million views. The video went viral and the campaign got picked and published in numerous blogs, newspaper articles, digital articles, TV news, etc.

The idea was to connect the emotions of people and to create awareness that mothers deserve to be treated with love and respect every day. Make them feel special and loved on their day: Make your mom a card for Mother’s Day this year. Tell her how much she means to you.

The campaign was successful, went viral and received many accolades and to date has received 49 industry awards.

Some excerpts and facts are taken from:

Media Post – MullenLowe’s ‘The World’s Toughest Job’ Campaign For American Greetings Wins NA Grand Effie by Steve Mc Cellan –

Shortyawards – Worlds toughest job

Campaign – Mullen Lowe Group wins Grand Effie for ‘World’s Toughest Job’ campaign by Doughlas Quenqua

Forbes – Here’s How American Greetings Is Working To Maintain Momentum Of Award-Winning ‘World’s Toughest Job’ by Jenny Rooney –

The Globe and Mail – Ad for ‘The World’s Toughest Job’ has a twist by Susan Krashinsky –

Crain’s Newsmaker Awards – American Greetings World’s Toughest Job campaign wins major marketing laurel by Scott Suttel 

-Nafisa Jalal

Nafisa Jalal is a part of the Class of 2020 of PG Programme in PR and Corporate Communications at SCoRe, Mumbai. She completed her winter internship with Ketchum Sampark, Mumbai.

She completed her graduation in Psychology and Sociology majors from Sophia College, Mumbai University. Then started her career with Human Resources in a generalist profile for 6.5 years. She wanted to venture in an industry that lets her work on business closely, provides an opportunity to learn and meet new people and at the same time is also dynamic. PR is one such industry. She has good command over her communication skills and she enjoys writing, few traits that a PR professional must possess. 

Her blog post originally appeared on her blog page here