New Job For Busy Shaq: CFO (Chief Fun Officer) For Carnival Cruise Line
Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 04:41PM By Barry Janoff
January 12, 2018: Shaquille O’Neal is so busy you’d think he wouldn’t have time to take a cruise, let alone get a job as a CFO for a cruise line.
Among his on-going pursuits: Hoops analyst for TNT; promoting such brands as The General car insurance, Ring home security, selling Icy Hot and Gold Bond, promoting a men’s jewelry line at Zales, a reserve police officer for Doral and Miami Beach, being Shaq-A-Claus attending CES in Las Vegas and launching his own YouTube Channel (Shaq Uncut),
Now, in a tongue-in-cheek multi-media campaign, “Choose Fun,” Carnival Cruise Line president Christine Duffy personally hires Shaq as the company’s CFO — which in this case stands for “Chief Fun Officer” — a position that basketball Hall of Famer O’Neal takes seriously, with a 7’1”, shoe size 22 sense of humor.
His mission: “To inspire America to 'Choose Fun' with Carnival when planning their next vacation, and in their everyday lives.”
“We at Carnival take our mission to be America’s most fun vacation very seriously,” Duffy, sitting in her office, says in the intro spot, “Meet Carnival’s New CFO.” “So we are making changes at the top — effective immediately.”
Shaq walks into company headquarters and belly-slides onto the security desk. He then bear-hugs employees, plays "Duck. Duck. Goose” with executives in a conference room and plays tag throughout the office hallways.
“Mr. O’Neal is perfect for the job,” Duffy says with a straight face. ”I’m excited for the immediate impact Shaq will make.”
O’Neal then walks into her office. “President Duffy. I turned the conference room into a ball pit. Marco Polo in 15.”
In a follow-up spot, “Tour Carnival Vista,” he brings his CFO mantra to the ship’s attractions and experiences, including SkyRide, Havana pool, Cloud 9 Spa, Guy Fieri's Burger Joint and a basketball court. At one point, as faux ship captain, he marries a couple (probably not legal).
Media buy will include high-profile events such as NFL Playoffs (Super Bowl was not mentioned), Winter Olympics and the Grammy Awards.
Carnival said the campaign would also include Internet, social media (hash tag ChooseFun) and experiential activations and promotions. The cruise line indicated that Shaq would be on at least a couple of upcoming cruises but did not specify which they might be.
You can send CFO Shaq an e-mail at an address he mentions (Shaq@Carnival.com) and get this reply:
"Thank you for your e-mail, kind sir, madam, or cat walking across the keyboard. I'm currently out of the office quality testing waterslides. For anything urgent, you can reach my by sky-writer (if I'm in your general area), and I'll try to get back to you as soon as possible."
Lead agency is Anomaly.
Carnival has also created a series of six-second spots as part of is “Choose Fun” effort that don’t include Shaq, with each focusing on a different aspect of the ship’s activities such as food, movies and shore excursions.
"We are very excited to have Shaq as part of the Carnival team! He will serve as a great partner ensuring everyone knows all about our one-of-a-kind brand of fun," Duffy said in a statement.
"We are very excited to have Shaq as part of the Carnival team! He will serve as a great partner ensuring everyone knows all about our one-of-a-kind brand of fun."
"We're confident that his embodiment of our brand values will inspire America to Choose Fun and discover the authentic, participatory and social atmosphere that Carnival offers."
"In today's world, it's more important than ever to choose fun, especially when everyone is busy with work, family, and life in general," O'Neal said in a statement. "So, I'm honored to be appointed the Chief Fun Officer at Carnival — a company that lives and breathes fun."
Shaq was draft as the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA by the Orlando Magic in 1992. Earlier this month, the man who was drafted No. 3 that year, Christian Laettner, was hired for the faux position of CMO — chief motivational officer — for a humorous campaign from FanDuel. (Alonzo Mourning, drafted No. 2 that year, may be awaiting a marketing call.)
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