Exploiting Hollywood 1980

  Chapter 120 New Game Rules

   "This is nonsense." Darcy Maguire became angry, "Dan, what's going on in your head? Is it the nuclear waste from the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant?"

   "There's no need for a personal attack, Darcy. You've seen two commercials, and anyone with eyes will know that Hudson's is a masterpiece, and your Ronald's is like a college student's homework."

"Do you only use your eyes to see the secretary's miniskirt? Our version of the filming was obviously done by highly trained connoisseurs. You say Hudson's filming is good, it's just that you got it and you don't. Deserved resources, we have those resources, and it is not necessarily worse than him."

   The three partners sitting at the top, one is Darcy's supporter, the other is Dan's patron, and the old man in the middle is already in semi-retirement and rarely shows up in the office. Today, like an old urchin, he is interested to see two advertisements in the company's internal arena.

  The old man's hair was gray, he raised his hand and made a stop gesture. Dan and Darcy both stopped obediently to argue. This kind of quarrel in the office is not actually a quarrel for personal grievances.

   is more about using the opportunity of quarrel to tell some facts that are beneficial to oneself.

The gray-haired old man carefully recalled the two advertisements and said, "I haven't felt so excited for a long time. Since David Ogilvy retired and lived in seclusion, I lost the fun of competition. Your competition today is very good. , reminds me of some of the feelings I had when I was with him back then."

   "Dan is right, Darcy's shooting quality is not as high as his..."

   "But...Sir, we've been treated unfairly, and Dan has been given vastly excess resources..."

The old man waved his hand, "Don't be in such a hurry, today's young people are not very patient, listen to me and finish what I have to say." Then he slowly stroked his beard, "Let's call all the girls and put these two advertisements on They watch and then do a live survey to see whoever has the highest score will qualify."

  The so-called girls refer to the front desk, secretary, clerk, art and other women of the advertising company. The percentage of female employees in advertising agencies is much higher than in other companies. In BBDO's Madison Street office in New York, dozens of girls can be gathered at random to try it out.

   Ronald whispered in Darcy Maguire's ear "Who is this old man? Why is it different from what we said before?"

Darcy also turned his head and whispered in his ear, "He's a veteran of the company and is now semi-retired. Dan's umbrella is his people, and my supporters among the partners are not favored by him. So he came over today. It's pulled off the rails."

  It turned out to be so. Ronald nodded in understanding. It's agreed that we will have a one-month competition between Cincinnati and Cleveland, and the winner will be determined by sales. Now it has been changed to vote by the girls in the office.

   What does this mean? Ronald felt that the situation seemed to favor him slightly in the long run.

   If the competitor's advertisement is similar to the one shot by oneself, and the sales boost is similar, there is no need for the other party to repeatedly use out-of-market tricks during the shooting stage. Moreover, the old man was brought in today, and the rules were revised on the spot. This is because the other party obviously felt that the result of competition with sales volume was not good.

   But in the short term, Ronald faces another disadvantage. When girls do questionnaires, they can actually use the questionnaires to guide them to achieve the results they want.

   The knowledge here is very deep, and Ronald doesn't understand it very well. However, major TV stations have done a lot of such questionnaires on the upcoming election of the leader. Ronald knew that there was basically no reference value. The predictions of candidates by different TV stations were very different. The TV stations could induce any results they wanted.

   Besides, there are two partners who are on Dan's side, and there is only one partner who is on Darcy's side and himself.

   said Ronald glanced at Darcy's partner supporter. He called Darcy Maguire away and whispered for a while.

Darcy's face was not good after hearing this. After returning to his seat, he quietly told Ronald, "My supporter thinks the situation is not good. He said that the old man will play tricks in the questionnaire. He came early today and called the old department for a meeting. It is estimated that there will be a surprise attack on us."

"But he said that even if it fails this time, he will compensate me and let me be transferred to other branches. I will give you a chance to shoot, don't be discouraged." Darcy Maguire said, He clenched his fist, encouraged Ronald and encouraged himself.

"New York is the best branch in the country, right?" Ronald thought. "Darcy Maguire looks like she's going to throw in the towel, and if she moves to the West Coast, her promise to herself will be lost. Lose this gum. Advertisements don't actually have a big impact on my film career, so I'll just let Eddie find a chance."

   However, the relationship with Helen's father, Elizabeth Sue's expectations, and the relationship network developed by Pia, who I finally got in touch with, may all come to nothing.

   "We haven't lost yet, Darcy!" Ronald smiled and touched his ear. It's not that I haven't experienced the competition that is several times fiercer than I have been in two movie crews.

"There's no need to be pessimistic so early. All lies have a weakness. When they meet the truth, they will melt like snowflakes meet the sun, and they will be gone with a bang." Ronald said deliberately loudly, making the gray-haired Hearing this, the old man smiled provocatively at him.

The old man looked back at him and didn't answer. Instead, he took out a box of cigars from the cabinet on the side, swiped at the base with a cigar cutter, then took out a match, struck it with a screeching sound, and clicked Get up your cigar. This set is very skilled, and it also means to demonstrate to Ronald on purpose.

   "I guess David Ogilvy doesn't miss him as much as you do, misses you." Ronald approached the old man, said a word, walked out of the conference room, and started pacing down the corridor.

   The old man's hand trembled, a black mark appeared on the cigar that had been roasted evenly, the old man was very unhappy and threw his hand out, extinguished the match, and quickly smoked the cigar one by one, as if to eliminate the imperfect mark.

  Darcy Maguire squeezed an apologetic smile at the old man, walked out of the conference room, and caught up with Ronald.

   "The young people today are very aggressive." Darcy's supporter among the partners said next to him.

"It's a pity that they don't respect tradition and the name of this great company. Girls in BBDO should wear skirts. I'm not an old fashioned person. Back then, I also supported the recruitment of a large number of female employees, and I used to support women entering the core of copywriting and so on. Type of work..."

   "But now women are wearing trousers, which is really indecent. Women still have to return to their families in order to continue our race and cultivate qualified, high-quality next generation..."

   Just when the old man complained to his partner, Ronald was already standing in the open office area outside the conference room.

  Many secretaries, front desk, and art girls were called together, and one person was sending them questionnaires and scoring forms.

  Darcy Maguire took one from an acquaintance and looked at it with Ronald.

   "Your score for the artistic expression of the ad, on a scale of 0-5.

   Your rating of the ad's sense of humor, 0-5.

  Your rating on the acting skills of the actors in the advertisement, 0-5 points.

  …”

   "This is really a tailor-made questionnaire." Ronald laughed.

  Darcy Maguire couldn't bear it anymore, "This is blatant sexism and discrimination against our professional work."

   "Indeed," Ronald thought, "the criterion for advertising is not artistic achievement, but whether you can sell it. The scoring criterion is really based on the opponent's version."

   Smell the questionnaire paper and smell of a copier, Ronald knew that Dan had made it this morning in a hurry.

   Looking at the girls who were eager to try, Ronald was a little curious, pulled Darcy Maguire and asked, "Do you know how often these girls have the opportunity to vote to decide the fate of advertising?"

   "I don't know, anyway, this method is not very common. Why are you interested in this?" Darcy was a little strange, and he was about to face judgment, and Ronald still had the mind to care about this irrelevant matter.

Ronald didn't answer Darcy's question and walked over to the secretaries, "I'm sorry to bother you, I'm just the person inside who will be dealing with you later." Ronald pointed to the conference room, "How long can you attend? A poll like this?"

  The secretaries and the front desk are all low-level staff. Seeing Ronald pointing to the conference room, they all thought he was the one who came down from "above" and was willing to talk to him:

   "It's not common, and it's rare once a year."

   "That's right, we're actually the users of the product, aren't we? Those directors are so paid that they don't use our company's advertised products for a long time."

   "We should let us vote more. It's better for each person to send some samples, so that we can judge."

   In the chirping answer, Ronald found the answer he was looking for with satisfaction.

   "Are you willing to say what you think? We have been separated from consumers for a long time. It is better to use this kind of questionnaire to score. It is better to listen to what you have to say." Ronald said to the secretary and the front desk.

   Silence.

   There are very few "upper" people who are willing to communicate with the employees below. Those directors who talk to them are mainly flirtatious dialogues. How can there be directors who really regard them as wise people?

   "If you ask us sincerely, we will dare to say it." A chubby secretary finally couldn't help speaking.

   "Yes! We're not just blondes who know how to dress up." One blonde was also dissatisfied with the stereotype of blondes in American society, "Just because we didn't go to college doesn't mean we can't think."

   "Don't worry, several partners are here today. They want to hear your opinions on a chewing gum advertisement. I will let them prepare some samples. You just need to say your true feelings."

   Ronald said with a smile, tilted his head and whispered to Darcy Maguire in a whisper, "Miss Maguire, we haven't lost yet, we are still far from losing. We need to prepare something before voting..."

   (end of this chapter)