Wednesday, 07 February 2007
Is It Funny or Is It Ageism?
[EDITOR'S NOTE: In yesterday's poll about what we should best do to improve the U.S. healthcare system, expanding Medicare to everyone came out ahead of the other choices. But there are a number of different takes on the issue raised in the comments on that post and the one from the day before. As the 2008 campaign develops, we will be publishing a lot more on healthcare and look forward to a growing discussion.]
Careerbuilder.com is the second largest job website after monster.com. You can post a resume there, search jobs by field of expertise, location and salary, read advice on job searching along with various services they provide to help people find employment.
And sometimes, like other kinds of websites, Careerbuilder publishes an interactive feature to catch your interest and promote their name.
One of those features, called Age-o-Matic, is currently running on Careerbuilder where it appears regularly among the banner promos that are rotated at the bottom of the home page. It also appears as an ad in some other places around on the web. Here's a small version of the banner ad:
That’s all I will tell you about it. When you have a few moments today, make sure your audio is on and spend a few moments visiting Age-o-Matic. Notice the quick, little splash page that comes up when you first land on the page and then follow the interactive instructions on the next pages. If, when you get to the audio step, there is no microphone on your computer, you can just type in a word or two or even just a couple of letters. It won't a difference to the outcome.
When you are finished, stop back here and tell us about your experience at Age-o-Matic, your opinion of it and whether or not it changes how you feel about Careerbuilder or not.
[Hat tip to Cowtown Pattie at Texas Trifles.]
Posted by Ronni Bennett at 06:11 AM | Permalink | Email this post
Comments
I didn't know anything about Careerbuilder.com and I don't suppose they'd care a bit what I'm thinking since I'm not a potential client, but either I have lost my sense of humour or it's not funny! And what's more, I can't see what it does for their site!
Posted by: Claude on Feb 7, 2007 12:29:46 PM
Sophomoric (which is to say, heavy-handed) humor very likely concocted by a roomful of geeky and inadequately supervised 20-somethings after too many Coronas.
For a bracing kids-today-I-tellya sort of experience, take a moment to consider that running Age-o-Matic requires more computer processing power than NASA had available to it for the Apollo missions to the moon!
If this is Careerbuilder.com's idea of helping me get the most from my computer, I think that as far as they're concerned I'm all set with my career, thank you.
Posted by: Pete Sampson on Feb 7, 2007 1:13:28 PM
I thought it was very crude (as in not not technically very well developed). It did not seem to me to be either funny or effective, but I have noticed in the past that certain types of American humour just don't work for me, and maybe this is one of them. What it is doing on a job finder site I cannot imagine.
We went to an art exhibition once with some "weird" paintings on show. Some one had written in the visitors' book, "I don't know what you're on, but I wish I had some of it".
Perhaps that applies here ?
And I echo Claude's opinion too.
Posted by: Septuagent on Feb 7, 2007 1:24:23 PM
I admit I have gone back twice to participate in that strange test. Once early this morning and just recently. Not because I was having fun but I just wasn’t sure I was getting it. It certainly does seem to be implying that bad jobs accelerate the aging process. And given that, they must think that aging is a bad thing. I had a good job and successful career and I still ended up aging so obviously there is no fountain of youth with respect to good jobs. I think I would have found a lot more humor in their self-analysis test if the end result had been perhaps turned me into a Do-Do Bird, a featherless Parrot, or some kind of worm. There is of course the cliché that states “doing such and such will make an old man out of you”. But that doesn’t imply that “such and such” is always bad.
So…..It does seem to be laced with a measure of ageism otherwise I am not sure it makes any sense. It certainly lacks any measure of class. It would appear to me that perhaps this “company” is actually a group of third graders trying their hand at entrepreneurship. But even third graders would have had a better test don’t you think?
Posted by: Alan G on Feb 7, 2007 1:34:00 PM
Asside from the spyware and adware that is downloaded when you click on said site, why would anyone consider it amusing or even intelligent? Insulting doesn't cover it by half. And it certainly tells me that careerbuilders either hasn't looked at what they're advertising or doesn't care. And in either event, would anyone WANT to get employement thru such an agency?
Posted by: Kim on Feb 7, 2007 5:13:54 PM
It's pretty stupid for all the reasons the previous commenters have mentioned (and hardly a good PR piece).
CareerBuilder is Gannett Co., Inc. with Knight Ridder and Tribune Company as equal partners.
Domain Name: CAREERBUILDER.COM
Administrative Contact:
CareerBuilder, LLC dm-ad1@careerbuilder.com
5550-A Peachtree Parkway
Suite 200
Norcross, GA 30092
US
770-349-2400 fax: 770-349-2401
Technical Contact:
Contact, Tech dm-tc1@careerbuilder.com
CareerBuilder LLC
5550-A Peachtree Parkway
Suite 200
Norcross, GA 30092
US
770-349-2400 fax: 770-349-2401
Here's the owner of oddcast which makes the ad (http://host-d.oddcast.com/php/ageomatic_UI/door=177&cl=66&AID=0#)
and the equally dumb monkemail (those are apes, not monkeys. Might as well insult all the viewers.)
http://www.careerbuilder.com/monk-e-mail/
--
Registrant:
Oddcast
134 W. 37th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10018
US
Domain name: ODDCAST.COM
Administrative Contact:
Sideman, Adi domains@oddcast.com
134 W. 37th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10018
US
+1.2123756290 Fax: +1.2123756291
Technical Contact:
Sideman, Adi domains@oddcast.com
134 W. 37th Street, 7th Floor
New York, NY 10018
US
+1.2123756290 Fax: +1.2123756291
Posted by: vuee on Feb 7, 2007 5:57:10 PM
It seemed pointless to me and not funny. Everybody gets old; so great job or not great job, the end result is the same. Was there some point to it that I didn't get?
Posted by: Rain on Feb 7, 2007 7:55:28 PM
I wasn't offended (I'm 65). It's just stress relief for those who feel overworked and underpaid in a go-nowhere job and are looking (desperately hoping) for a better one. It's somewhat humorous, but not fall-down-laughing funny. As for Careerbuilder, I didn't have an opinion about it before, and I still don't.
Posted by: SuzyR on Feb 8, 2007 11:43:52 AM
I think some of you are thinking about this one a little too much. I mean, it's a game people. It doesn't say that aging's old, it's just an innocent timewaster. Really now; there're bigger things in this world to worry about.
Posted by: Bernard on Feb 13, 2007 1:41:11 PM
