Young Boss, Unwilling Celebrity Pt. 35

Part 35

During the commercial break, Marcy leaned over to Tim and said, "Isn't this fun? I just know that this appearance is really going to raise your profile, and the brand awareness of Naked Attraction!"

Before Tim could respond, Marcy's eyes went to the prim and pretty professor next to him. "And Carly, you were great too! The audience really loved your analysis, and not just because it made this adorable hunk embarrassed." She winked at Tim and giggled, and he could feel his face heating up.

Carly said, "Oh, I didn't mean to embarrass you, Tim." Tim noticed that her face was a little flushed, too. "In fact, I was just trying to compliment you on a very clever idea for an ad, and the way that you so insightfully appealed to your female audience."

"Well, I'm not sure that I--" Tim began, but was interrupted by the appearance of the two make-up women, Lynn and Emilia. Lynn opened a small kit on Marcy's desk and freshened up her make-up, while Emilia did the same for Tim.

Emilia grinned at Tim while she dabbed a bit of sweat off of his forehead and temples. "The crowd really loves you, Mr. Johnson! When Marcy said that she was going to show the internet version of the ad, their cheering was deafening."

Diana the camerawoman was lingering within earshot, and said, "No kidding! They almost blew the earphones off my head!"

Though Lynn was touching up Marcy, her attention was also on Tim. "I loved when the professor explained that when your employees stripped your boxers off of you, they took away all your power."

All of the women chuckled, and Tim looked from one to another, wishing he could sink into the couch cushions and disappear.

Emilia lightly applied a little powder to Tim's shiny forehead. "I don't blame you for sweating a little bit, considering what Marcy and the professor were putting you through."

"I wasn't putting him through--" Carly sputtered, before Emilia turned to her and dabbed at her forehead and cheeks, interrupting her.

"I saw that you seemed to be getting a little warm out there too," Emilia giggled, "especially when Mr. Johnson was losing his clothes onscreen."

For a moment, Carly was speechless, and Tim saw that her face was suddenly pink. He couldn't stop his eyes from dropping briefly to her blouse, where he noticed her clearly erect nipples.

Carly finally managed to say, "I- I wasn't... I mean, I didn't..." She looked at Tim, as if she were about to apologize, and she just managed to catch his eyes rising back to her face, and she knew that he must have just noticed how hard her nipples were!

"Oh, don't get so flustered, Professor," Marcy said. "Every woman in the building got flustered when teasing Tim here was running around onscreen in his birthday suit!"

Tim winced a little as all of the women around him laughed, except for Professor Sands, who looked as mortified as he felt.

Just then his four attractive employees showed up. They were all giggly and nervous, and Marcy said hello to each of them in turn, and then hustled them into chairs on the other side of her desk from Tim and Carly, as Debbie the stage director gave her a countdown to the end of the commercial break.

"And we're back," Marcy said, as the audience applauded, "and we're joined by four more guests.

She turned toward Anna, Kaitlyn, Julie and Mia, and introduced each of them in turn. Then she faced the audience. "You probably recognize them as the other actors who appeared in the Naked Attraction commercial."

After a beat, Marcy adopted a comic, scolding tone. "That is, if any of you were paying attention to anything but Mr. Johnson and his wardrobe problems!" The audience roared with laughter, and Marcy smiled and turned back to the girls.

"No offense to you ladies. All of you did an excellent job in the commercial."

Confident, feminist Anna said, "None taken, Marcy. We all understand why Mr. Johnson was the center of attention in the ad!" She gave Tim a slightly teasing grin, as the audience laughed again.

"Yes we do," Marcy said. "Now I just called you all actors, but I understand that you're really not professional actors at all."

She turned to a smiling Shawna. "Ms. Green, I've got to ask you about a debate that has broken out as the ad has been getting more and more attention. It's a question of authenticity."

Shawna said, "Go ahead."

"Many people insist that Mr. Johnson here is not an actual boss, and the women are not his employees, but that they are all professional actors. Can you settle that question?"

Shawna smiled at Tim. "While that is very flattering to everyone in the ad, none of them have any acting experience at all."

Marcy said, "So you're saying that Mr. Johnson really is their boss, and they really are his employees?"

"Yes. That's probably the main reason the ad is so effective."

Marcy turned to Tim. "I'm so impressed! It must have taken so much confidence and courage for you to agree to do the ad, especially considering that these lovely ladies actually work for you. Weren't you so embarrassed when they started stripping you?"

Tim looked very uncomfortable, as he stammered his way through an answer. "I- I guess, a little bit, at first. But it was a solid idea for an ad, and I thought the humor would make it work."

"Have you done any acting at all, before?" Marcy asked. "In commercials, or even in high school or college?"

Tim shrugged. "No. This was my first time."

"Well that really is amazing, because all of you really knocked it out of the park!" The audience applauded. Then Marcy leaned toward Tim and lowered her voice a little bit, as if she weren't wearing a mike, and everyone couldn't hear. "This question might be a little personal, but I have to ask. Did you have a body double?"

That obviously caught Tim by surprise. "What?"

Marcy plowed ahead. "You know, a professional model who might stand in for you during the scenes when you got more... exposed." Some laughter could be heard from the audience.

"In fact, my female staff -- especially our floor director Debbie," here Marcy looked at Debbie -- "was sure that you did."

Up in the booth, Lauren spoke to the two camerawomen over their headsets.

"Diana, pan to Debbie quickly. Carol, stay on Marcy and the guests."

Diana smiled and moved her camera, catching Debbie in a medium shot. She had heard the command over her headset, and looked up from her clipboard in surprise. She blushed and playfully waved her hand as if she could make Diana get the camera off of her.

Marcy said, "Oh, don't be shy now, Debbie!" Marcy looked back to Tim, grinning. "In particular, she was certain that you at least had a 'butt double,' for the scenes in the internet version when you lost your shorts."

Debbie looked mortified, but couldn't help smiling guiltily as she mouthed the word, "NO!" and then held a hand up in front of her face. The audience laughed and hooted.

Tim shook his head and looked shocked. "A butt double?"

"Isn't that what you called it, Debbie?" Marcy teased. Poor Debbie shook her head and was laughing now. She raised her clipboard to hide her face, and the audience's laughter grew.

Marcy turned to Carly. "Professor, during the break, weren't you also speculating whether the exposed derriere in the internet version was Mr. Johnson's?"

The psychologist looked shocked, and her face instantly colored. "I- I- I said no such thing." She turned to Tim, who was as off-balance as she was. "It never even occurred to that you weren't--I mean... that that wasn't your--"

Marcy burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding, folks. Our esteemed professor would never sit around gossiping about which naked male behind belonged to whom."

Tim was as red-faced as Debbie and Carly. Shawna leaned over and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling sexily. "Marcy, I can assure you that no butt doubles were used in the commercial." She looked into Tim's mortified eyes and said, "What you see on camera is ALL Mr. Johnson here. We didn't even have a make-up person on hand to put any powder on his bare bottom."

The audience laughed raucously again, and Tim looked like he wanted to die.

Marcy laughed and said, "Well Debbie, it looks like you lost that bet!" '

The pretty stage director was doubled over, cringing and laughing, still trying to cover her face with the clipboard, and the audience continued to hoot and laugh.

Marcy let the crowd laugh for a few more seconds, then turned back to Tim. "I can see that you're blushing, and I apologize if we've made you feel uncomfortable." Tim gamely tried to deny it, but his crimson face told the truth.

Marcy said, "All of the women at the station have said how brave we think you are, and what a good sport, and how we can't imagine many men putting themselves in such a vulnerable position, and allowing their young female employees to embarrass them on video like that. You definitely have a lot of fans here." She looked up toward the audience in and around the bleachers. "And judging from their response, in our audience today, too!"

More applause and laughter came from the crowd, and Tim made only the briefest of eye contact with some of the women in the front rows. Positive as it was, Marcy's flattery couldn't overcome his embarrassment.

Then Anna spoke up. "Actually, Marcy, Mr. Johnson may not have been quite as brave as you've given him credit for."

Tim and Carly both turned their heads quickly toward Anna, and Marcy said, "How's that?"

Anna smiled at Tim and said, "Mr. Johnson's original idea for this ad campaign was the reverse of what you just saw. In fact, we taped earlier versions of the first two ads, in which Mr. Johnson put on the Naked Attraction, and then all of us girls in the office were driven crazy by it. But instead of trying to get him out of his clothes, we started throwing ourselves at him."

Tim had suddenly gone pale, and Carly Sands looked confused, but all of the other women on stage were smiling.

Except for Marcy. She said, "What?"

Anna nodded. "His idea was that we'd find him irresistible and start taking our own clothes off, to get his attention and approval."

"Well, that sounds awful," Marcy said.

"It was," Kaitlyn agreed. "We were all really embarrassed."

Petite, pretty Mia jumped in. "I was the one who had to get up onto the ladder in front of Mr. Johnson, to try to fix the light. I had to wear a short skirt, and pull my panties up into a wedgie, so that when Mr. Johnson went to steady the ladder below me, he and the camera got a look at my almost bare bottom!"

There were gasps in the audience, as the temperature in the room seemed to fall.

"What gave you that idea," Marcy said, looking at Tim. "And what made you decide to change the ads in the opposite direction?"

Tim looked like he'd swallowed his tongue, and Shawna jumped in. "We had assumed that the audience for a body spray for men would be young men, so it made sense that a campy ad campaign featuring attractive women showing some skin and throwing themselves at a handsome man would be successful. But when our market analysis data came in, it turned out that most consumers who actually buy Naked Attraction are the girlfriends and wives of the guys they're buying it for."

Shawna had explained this to Marcy earlier, but Marcy was a pro, and did a convincing acting job, moving from confused to understanding. "Ohhh," she said, drawing out the word. "So when you found out that the audience you had to appeal to was women, the ladies in the office got to keep their clothes on, and Mr. Johnson had to lose his?"

"Exactly," Shawna said.

Marcy turned toward Tim, and adopted a disappointed expression. "Mr. Johnson, shame on you! Taking advantage of your pretty employees like that!"

A few low hisses and even a "boo" came from the studio audience. Tim was still speechless, mortified at the turn that the conversation had taken.

Once again, Shawna came to his rescue. Sort of. "The first ads were still good, Marcy. They were funny and light-hearted, and they definitely appealed to a male audience. But most of us were worried that they were basically re-hashing an old, patriarchy-in-power script that has been done to death. But when the marketing data flipped the script, Mr. Johnson had to play along with the new direction of the campaign."

Carly said, "This is fascinating! In a way, the existing ad reflects the social changes in our country, which have allowed for the role reversal that has made the ad so successful. Now that women have more financial power and are making more of the buying decisions, they can call the shots when it comes to advertising, too."

Marcy smiled at Carly, warming to the theme. "So you're saying that powerful modern women, like those on our staff and in our audience, are actually the ones who empowered Mr. Johnson's female subordinates to rise up and strike a blow for their fellow women... by stripping their boss of his clothes, and therefore of his power over them!"

The women on stage were all smiles, and the studio audience cheered and applauded raucously. Tim looked like he might pass out.

Marcy said, "But as you said before, professor, the humor in the ad keeps the proceedings from feeling like an angry or mean-spirited war between the sexes. Instead, it's more like a sexy prank, a light-hearted fantasy of what it might look like if women in an office were to get the upper hand over their attractive male boss."

Carly nodded. "Exactly."

Marcy said, "Well, even if it turns out that Mr. Johnson might not be as brave as we thought he was" -- here she gave Tim a reproachful look -- it certainly seems to have worked, if the number of downloaded views or the reaction of our female staff here is any indication."

Danielle smiled and nodded. "We're certainly pleased with the response. The two versions of the first ad have been watched over a half-million times, and we're getting email comments from all over about how many females have been waiting for an ad like this."

Another round of sustained applause washed over Tim and the women on stage. He looked at his smiling employees -- Anna lifted her eyebrows at him cheekily -- and then to the audience, and finally to Shawna.

Shawna winked at him, and then spoke loudly enough to get the crowd's attention.

"And Marcy, that's why we're making two big announcements today. Number one, the second ad in the series is going to debut on several channels tonight at 9:00 p.m., and number two, we're announcing that Mr. Johnson has generously agreed to participate in an audience interaction contest that will start tomorrow!"

The applause grew louder, and Marcy finally had to hold one hand up. "Okay, you've got our attention! And we want to hear all about the ad and the contest." She looked straight into the camera that Carol had on her. "And we'll do that... after this commercial break."

Debbie didn't have to hype the already excited audience to applaud, so she took a quick glance at the stage.

And saw Tim Johnson, with a shocked and worried look on his handsome face.