Ad for world’s toughest job draws few applicants and many smiles

The job ad listed the many unusual requirements for director of operations – and still, a few dozen people answered it and set up video interviews:

– Must be able to work 135-plus hours a week, it said.

– Must working standing up for most hours, often overnight.

– No breaks.

– Eating depends on when the “associate” eats.

– Able to manage 10 to 15 projects at one time. (There are many, many more tough demands on time, emotions and mental skills.)

– And the work for Rehtom Inc. (there’s the first clue) is pro bono. Yes, for free.

The job sounds impossible. But the people behind the ad say billions of people do it every day.

If you go to the online version of the job ad, there is a link that goes to a video for #WorldsToughestJob, a Mother’s Day campaign on the American Greetings Card Store.

The video is a reminder that a mother’s “impact is endless. And so is her job description,” American Greetings says on the website.

As you might guess, when the interviewer discusses the unique requirements for the job, many a head is shaken and words like “crazy” and “insane” are dispersed.

Eventually, there is the reveal of the true job title – mom – and the sentimental among us have to brush away the tears as the tributes to moms flow.

The video had been viewed through YouTube more than 4 million times since it was posted Monday.

Andrea Mileskiewicz, an associate creative director for Boston-based Mullen, the advertising agency behind the spot, said that because Mother’s Day is such an important day for American Greetings, her team went in with big goals.

“The topic of mom is so heartfelt and so relatable, and we just wanted to make a video that inspired meaningful connections,” she said. “We’re incredibly pleased with how people are connecting with it.”

She shared some details about how the ad came to be. Mileskiewicz went home to Michigan where she spent time with her brother, his wife and their newborn, the couple’s second child.

And, she said, it really hit home when she witnessed how hard being a mother was for her sister-in-law.

When she went back to Boston, the planning for the Mother’s Day campaign was just beginning. She pitched the idea that many people talk about how hard being a mother is, but actually showing it would be a different take on a holiday campaign.

Mileskiewicz said as the concept took shape, a team of moms from the two companies weighed in to give it its humor and authenticity.

“They took the idea to what it’s become,” she said.

So Mullen placed an ad in newspapers and online. Craigslist ads linked to a fictitious job description page. Hundreds of thousands of people saw the ad online or in the papers, but only 24 answered it.

That kind of proves the point that people think the job is too tough, Mileskiewicz said.

Then the Mullen team set up interviews with people who were told they would be helping evaluate the job ad by video conference.

The man who described the ad to them actually was an improv actor.

Some of the test group came to an office in New York while others used a webcam from home, Mileskiewicz said.

Only one person actually started to see the ruse while there. The others sat through about 15 minutes of interviewing before they were let in on the real message.

“Everyone [who] came in had no idea had no idea what they were reacting to,” Mileskiewicz said. “All of those reactions are completely authentic.”

So, will there be something similar for Father’s Day?

Mileskiewicz: “All I can say is fathers are just as important, and it’s something we’re already excited about. So stayed tuned.”