Impressive ‘Star-in-Waiting’

“We already have a female on the committee, Merle Younger, who at present is in Perth helping to prepare for her youngest son’s wedding.”

“Oh great, I had no wish to portray this committee as an all-male club.”

“And you second request, Toni?”

“That you propose a resolution for voting now by this committee whether their accept or reject a change to your contract with WDID Advertising, approving me to replace the small group from our agency that has been working on this promotion for your Spring race day. If this motion is passed unanimously, it will mean that the action by this committee of five members of the full board of nine will comprise the voting majority when the motion goes forward to the board as a recommendation.”

“By god,” Matt Crombie said, sounding totally impressed. “Someone had whispered to me when she walked into the room who the fuck sent us this girl high school. Guys this girl alone has articulated more horsepower than we’ve heard from any advertising representative than I’ve heard in the 14 years I’ve been on the executive.”

Smiling, Toni said, “As a legitimate representative of the club who is available to answer questions and suggest solutions upon request, I must refrain from telling you how to vote. Just think of what this so-called girl from high school has indicated professionally, without giving too much away at this early stage, of her positive approach and without overly hinting her grandfather will figure in her promotion. Compare that to the alternative of what that other team from WDID Advertising was proposing after almost three months of dilly-dallying.”

“They’d proposed virtually nothing of merit,” someone called.

Matt just smiled and accompanied Toni who was walking to the door after saying she’d leave the committee to deliberate in private.

Toni was sipping tonic water and the president was smiling appreciative at the taste of single malt whisky in the boardroom when, five minutes later, the committee began trooping in.

“The motion passed unanimously,’ Pete the chairman announced.

Toni said, “Guys, this is wonderful. Thanks, and now my creative ideas will flow to this club’s advantage. My boss Brick Briggs, when arranging with Matt for me to meet you all, also had a big table booked in the Royal Hotel for you all to attend a complimentary lunch with me today, compliments of WDID Advertising.”

Understandably, everyone in that room accompanied Toni to the Royal.

When crossing the street amid the group, Toni wiggled her ass in pleasure when she heard someone say quietly, “This young lady appears to be the much-needed genius to work to draw in the crowds for our Spring race day to put this club back on its feet financially.”

Chapter 3

Back at work next day, Toni politely asked Reggie to assigned a clerical assistant to her for three days.

He blanched at receiving that request, probably thinking about his operational budget and sighed, “We’ll have to go through the process of applying to admin for a temporary appointment and this department will be charged for that appointment. We have two clerical assistants and both are up to their necks in work at present.”

“Then can we take the leap and you give me one of your copywriters as that will be far more useful to me?”

“But all of them are your seniors.”

“So?”

“What does that mean?”

“Are you discriminating against me by over-stepping managerial impartiality.”

“What the fuck are you saying?”

“The case in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal: McInnes v Felix Drilling Pty Ltd, dated September 11, 2018, involving an accounts clerk who had a request to the company to provide the office with an electric pencil sharpener, her requests being turned down three times.”

“Christ, Toni, are you also a lawyer?”

“No, but during our communication studies, we all were given different court judgements to convert into a press release that had to be slanted slightly in favour of a client company, whatever the outcome of the judgement. I was given Judith McInnes’ successful action against Felix Drilling for my press release.”

“Christ, the things that young people as students are being taught these days. I’m not sure that I was aware that a work dispute over a pencil sharpener could be taken to a Government Tribunal to resolve.”

“Never fear Reggie, roughly speaking, we’re all in the same boat. I’ve only recently graduated from university and much of the stuff we were taught is under constant review for necessary modifications or being tossed out because it’s already outdated.”

“Well, I’m not risking being dragged off to court because you were pissed off with me not providing you with a clerical assistant. You can have my best copywriter, but only for two days from tomorrow, so you best get your ass moving on this. Be careful with Raewyn Wood as she can be rather stroppy if pushed but I’m giving you the best. I’ll send her over to you in a few minutes for you to discuss what you want from her tomorrow and the next day.”

“Thanks, Reggie. You’re a champion.”

“Christ, Toni. You have what it takes to get things done and to get ahead, and you’re still a kid.”

“That’s being prejudice, Reggie. Don’t you mean young lady?”

“Fuck you,” Reggie grinned and walked away almost strutting.

Twenty minutes later, a good-looking female aged about 30 arrived at Toni’s desk, scowling.

“Who on earth do you think you are, you upstart. It was your first day here yesterday, and yet you were nowhere to be seen and today you have demanded I work for you for two days because you told Reggie you wanted the best.”

“Raewyn, please. Hear me out first before you judge me. We need to work together to save the client organisation from strangulation by rising debt. Do you like horses, Raewyn?”

“Oh, yes. I had a pony from the age of 12 until I was 17. But what the fuck is the connection between horses and your client?”

“Please sit and I’ll briefly brief you.”

“You’ll what, surround me in clumsy alliterations?” Raewyn smiled as she sat.

“My client is the Ormond Horse Racing Club on the other side of the Blue Mountains,” Toni began.

Fifteen minutes later, Raewyn entered Reggie’s cubicle that was surrounded on three sides by ceiling to floor glass.

“Wow, you look calm and collected rather than fuming,” Reggie said carefully.

“That’s because I’ve been virtually enchanted. That girl is amazing. In just two minutes she had won me over with her passionate and almost lurid story of the slow strangulation of a horse racing club on the other side of the Blue Mountains.”

“Well, put that way, I’m now more than interested.”

Raewyn said enthusiastically, “It’s not only her story-telling ability Reggie. While she was spinning her tale, I could sense she was hell-bent in winning me over. I’m telling you that girl has the looks, the passion, the right education, the enthusiasm to do well and above all, the focus to become the most outstanding person that this creative department has seen, at least in my time which is 13 years. I won’t be surprising if she becomes the darling of Sydney’s advertising industry within five years, perhaps sooner.”

“Raewyn, are you okay; this is very unlike you?”

“I’m not on drugs, if that’s behind that comment, Reggie. She’s also motivated me without appearing to even be trying. I want to give her my best to assist to put her into a win-win situation. She’s even persuaded me to do two 10-hour days with her, and says she’ll pay me out of her own pocket for those extra four hours over-run of the time that the company pays me.”

“Wow but why the rush? All that she has to do for the 3 pm meeting on Friday is to present concepts and rough blurb.”

“Oh yeah, that girl is on a mission. Now this is confidential. She told me she was actually hired by Brick Briggs himself. Plus, she was given a client that no-one here wanted because it appeared a lost cause and so she’s out to gather a small team around her to work to create something that will really work for the Ormond RC. She decided to put everything into it and rather than present concepts on Friday, she wants to reveal a full presentation to go forward for client consideration.”

“Does she now,” Reggie muttered. “I’ll put a stop to that, forthwith.”

“What and miss the boat?”

Reggie scratched his balding head and said, “What boat?”

“She’s a runaway, Reggie. It’s her style. I’ve seen enough already plus glancing through her personal work folio that, she’s a rarity. She not only believes in the reaching for the stars concept of self-motivation, I suspect she believes she’s good enough to develop to become a leading achiever.”

“What? Raewyn, she’s new to the industry who only began here yesterday? Your comment is preposterous.”

“Reggie, give her the chance to do it her way. Remember the reaction in here when Brick appointed you as manager of this creative team. Everyone was expecting Arthur, assistant manager of the retail creative team to be appointed. But Brick pulled you from the pack and said to you, as you told us later, that you might be rather dour for creative work but you knew everyone here well and you were surprisingly popular despite your negativism.”

“You also had built a personal record of never missing a deadline and whenever the outgoing manager Trish was off to the toilet with another of the lesbians around here, each member of the team invariably went to you with queries or problems.”

“Raewyn, you are talking as if you head HR, why are you telling me this shit about what I went through.”

“Reggie, Brick gave you a chance and as a result, you’ve done well. We’ve never had a manager in my time here who pitches in to work alongside anyone who appears likely to miss a deadline. What all this means is this is your opportunity to give Toni a big chance.”

He scratched his trimmed stubble.

“The risk is too great. If she fails, she’ll feel her world around her has collapsed and Brick will kick me in the ass for allowing a waste of such promising talent.”

“She won’t fail Reggie, I promise. She was with the racing club’s promotions committee plus the club president for most of yesterday and my bet is she’ll have won them all over big-time, and they’ll give her everything she needs for compiling her campaign.”

“Okay, I’ll back off.”

“Good, Reggie. But back off to the bare minimum. Compare the situation with her to horses, and I know horses. There are some so achieve their best when half of virtually everything is done for them, especially through coaxing. While others are natural bolters and will run their fasters without the rider’s interference.”

“Ah, meaning you believe that Toni is a natural bolter. I respect your opinions Raewyn and remember you counselling fellow workers when I began as manager of the team on my first days when opposition to my appointment was still bubbling. Off you go, with my thanks. Prepare to clear your desk by the end of today and put holds on other work, because you need to be concentrating on your contributions to the bolting Toni for the next two days. Fuck, I still can’t understand why we are giving this newcomer so much free rein.”

“I’m struggling with it too, boss. But at least I know my supporting efforts won’t be wasted.”

At 3.00 next day, on Raewyn’s first day working with Toni, Reggie noticed his chief copy writer back at her desk, presumably catching up on her own work.

He sauntered over and said casually, “What’s up, have you two had a scrap and now you can’t stand our star-in-waiting?”

“You talk crap sometimes boss.”

“Well what am I to think? You’ve been teaming with her for six hours and you’re back at your own desk already.”

“I’m not planning a girly affair with her if that’s what you are thinking, Reginald.”

“Th-that n-never entered my m-mind,” he spluttered. “What is it then?”

“Reggie darling, my predictions are spot on. Miss Cute Star-in-Waiting straight out of university training, probably could run rings around almost if not all creative people in this company in visualising and speedily developing the concept ready for submission to the design team.”

“Wow, she must have been working all night to prepare the pitch material to that level.”

“No way, she will have been thinking about it since her meeting with the Ormond RC committee yesterday. She told me she went out last evening at 6.00 to meet a bunch of her ex-university mates at a bar and didn’t get home until almost 2.00 and you saw her arrive this morning, looking as bright as a button.”

“She worked at speed drafting the main ad for selected placement in print and electronic social media and while I was working on appropriate text after being briefed by her, she scanned the draft and loaded it on to her computer and she sketched a side-on headshot of someone from a photo that she later told me was a recent cell phone side-profile shot she’d taken of her paternal grandfather when looking at his wife who was calling him.”

“She asked me to call a drawing artist, the best one I could find that was available. By sucking up I managed to snare our best, Greg Brandon.”

“Greg entered, looked at her and said cute boobs. Unbelievably, she just smiled and said, ‘Hi, you must be arrogant Greg, the best sketch artist on our payroll, I understand’.”

“Greg winked at me and turning to Toni said something like, ‘Show me what you got darling’, and sat beside her. Toni brought up the page and he looked and looked until muttering, ‘Omigod’.

“Toni just sat and waited and I could scarcely bear the suspense.”

Raewyn said Greg asked why was he called, the sketch was completed near to perfection.

“Toni told Greg she was just an amateur at sketching. ‘Sweet, sweet man, she said. ‘I need you to tickle this image up here and there until it’s perfect and brings out full facial character as we’ll be running with the sketch in the first ads of the campaign including in magazines and in the electronic media’. Greg asked could she get the guy from the photo to come in tomorrow morning as a model so Greg could work on character lines and other subtleties to deliver what Toni wanted.”

“Stubborn Greg was totally impressed by her and acted like putty in her hands. If I hadn’t seen it, I would never had believed he could become so submissive. However, he did manage to get in a jibe and ask how could a recruit straight out of university act so daringly to think she could bypass the normal step by step approval process until the work ended up for signing-off ready for client appraisal after full consideration by her senior peers?”

“She then had us in fits of laughter when she said because Brick had approved her recruitment personally and because Brick knew her father who’d been a top footballer a decade after Brick reached his pinnacle. Further, she was our last chance of getting something worthwhile to the client because it appeared no one else here at WDID Advertising believed that the Ormond RC was worth attempting to save from looming oblivion.”

“Gee, what a fascinating day you’ve had,” said Reggie. “I wish it had been filmed so we could all sit with drinks and enjoy it.”

“It has been filmed, on the Sentinel Data Security camera located above our heads.”

Reggie froze for a moment and then brushed his stubble with his hand.

“You’re right. I’ll ask Brick to authorise a copied extraction of that section of the security footage and have him view it and suggest, with the consent of participating personalities, that we show it to be wider audience at the end of our Friday group meeting.”

“He won’t allow that, I’m sure.”

“You may be right Raewyn but one never knows with Greg. After all, he created the name of this company, ‘We-Do-it-Differently’. He just might be hoping that Toni is destined to rise about the pack and that she may have inherited copies of some her father’s vital genes.”

“What.”

“Some of her father’s DNA.”

“Oh yeah. Perhaps you should mention that theory to the big boss.”

Chapter 4

By invitation from the managing-partner, most of the people working for the company crowed into the No 2 meeting room at 3.45 on Friday.

The invitation on Brick Brigg’s personal letterhead was posted on all office noticeboards two days earlier. It stated:

‘I invite everyone interested to watch the presentation of the first submission from newcomer Toni Messenger to the board of senior peers from Creative. If approved, the work will be submitted to the client to seek the Green Light. Toni recently graduated from university with a degree in Communications and only started working for us on Monday. After interviewing her as a job applicant, I sensed that she possessed much more than the usual relatively inexperienced applicant possesses and the clip demonstrates her passion in the challenge on her first week of joining the national workforce.’

“I obtained her permission to invite you all to the proceedings that will be followed by a fascinating film-clip in the final stages of Toni’s preparation that includes two of our people that she called to assist with the finishing touches. Again, I received the permission from those three people to screen this footage to a wider audience on Friday. The footage was retrieved from a one of our permanently fixed security cameras that you all are aware that were installed from Day One when this company began operations.’

‘Brick Briggs’

The board of peers invited Toni to make a brief statement in support of her submission.

“The client is the Ormond Horse Racing Club established in Ormond in 1888. Ormond to this day remains a country town and is location about five hours’ drive from Sydney to its location other side of the Blue Mountains. The club is on its knees, financially, due to falling patronage that is affecting small racing club throughout Australia, requiring a desperate fight by the worst-affected clubs to win back patronage.”

“The club sent representatives to WDID Advertising and they returned with a contract that WDID Advertising would undertake to come up with an advertising focused promotion campaign designed to bring back the crowds to the Ormond RC Spring meeting later this year to hopefully pour money into the club’s almost bare coffers.”

“Creative management was discussing how to approach this tough-looking assignment when I arrived on this scene last Friday for my interview. I was told about current work in progress including the Ormond RC campaign that lay in waiting for inspiration, I thought and I mentioned I had close family connection with the racing club through my grandfather. I suggested I could help and that gained immediate interest and on my first day working here I went to Ormond to assess the situation at the club and I met the promotions committee and ideas began swirling in my mind.”

“After outlining my concepts, the promotions committee supported my proposal with the rider that I and I alone conceive and execute my proposals. I didn’t seek exclusivity, being a new entrant into the advertising industry. I almost wet myself in shock and didn’t know what to do until the club president, who was ex-officio at the meeting by virtual of his club ranking, said to me kindly, and excuse the bad language used, ‘Toni, you impressed us as an inspirational young woman and we think you’ll work best without being on a halter. Don’t fuck it up by worrying; just take our decision to your immediate boss and get cracking on our terms’.”

“My boss Reggie was prepared to back me and went to Brick who knows my father and that’s why he’d interviewed me to find if I might have some of the stuff that made my father, Willy Messenger, a winger, into one of the top Sydney footballers of his decade.”

“I guess Brick must have said some like ‘We’ve nothing to lose Reggie as we have nothing else on the table for Ormond RC. I sense there’s something very promising about this kid.”