I can't wait to feature Dubow in 'Monk-e-Maker'

Gannett's CareerBuilder is reaching back six years to its series of TV commercials about chimpanzees raising office havoc to promote itself during next month's Super Bowl, the company said today. The campaign includes a new feature that may have given Dubow & Co. pause: Monk-e-Maker. (More on that later.)

During previous campaigns, the ads included monkeys interviewing for jobs (example, above), misreading a sales trend chart, and drinking booze in the office -- all to humorously illustrate working conditions that would send ordinary employees on a job search. (More examples on YouTube.)

"The chimpanzees," the company said in today's statement, "are back at work at Yeknom Industries (monkey spelled backwards), creating chaos and high jinks for the only human employee in the firm. From a business trip gone awry to an unorthodox fire safety meeting to a 'car sandwich' in the company parking lot, the chimpanzees are all about monkey business."

The commercials are scheduled to appear as GCI continues a major promotional effort of the No. 1 jobs site through a rare editorial series pushed by Corporate across the company's community newspapers and TV websites. CareerBuilder could use the lift; like many jobs sites, it's suffered in the weak labor market. Moreover, the site is a significant part of GCI's overall digital revenue stream.

GCI owns a slim majority of Chicago-based CareerBuilder in a partnership with Tribune Co., McClatchy Co. and Microsoft.

The Super Bowl is a high-profile platform for launching major marketing efforts because of the event's extraordinary viewership. Companies pay as much as $2.6 million to air a 30-second commercial during the game, which this year is Feb. 6 outside Dallas. CareerBuilder says it has seen a significant rise in business following previous Super Bowl ads.

The chimps first appeared in a CareerBuilder ad in 2005, then returned the following year. This will be their first appearance since then. This year's campaign will include three other online elements, including Monk-e-Mail, which lets users send messages featuring talking monkeys.

Another element is Monk-e-Maker, which today's statement describes as follows: "For anyone who's ever felt like they work with a bunch of monkeys, CareerBuilder and Oddcast are also launching a new viral program that enables users to upload pictures and see what their boss, their co-workers, their social network friends and others would look like as a monkey."

Oh, boy.

Please post your replies in the comments section, below. To e-mail confidentially, write jimhopkins[at]gmail[dot-com]; see Tipsters Anonymous Policy in the rail, upper right.