Young Genius Rhonda Royce

"What about TV viewers who don't view those channels?"

"Sharon I have to say tough. While Mr Harper has funded this campaign hugely we can only do so much."

"Celeste, welcome back to the public spotlight. My mother is watching this tonight with eight female friends, all of whom were fans of you, calling you probably the best-natured and one of the loveliest super-models ever."

Celeste waved to the camera and said, "Hi Sharon's mother and friends. You are the type of ladies that made me love my modeling work, knowing it was appreciated."

"Are you coming back into public exposure Celeste?"

"I'm thinking about it but hopefully not in roles as a grandmother although being one myself I have nothing against grandmothers but rather the imagine that sticks to them. That's why I accepted this part when I read Rhonda's draft script. I was blown away by her concept of four grandmothers on the floor playing like kids with the four of the toys from the range of Mr Harper's Educational Playthings and having a great time when four husband-actors burst in demanding where was their dinner."

"Yes I saw a tape of the ad and almost fell out of my chair laughing so much at the antics of your grandmothers. It was hilarious."

"Josie, you are a grandmother and acted in this ad. Do your grandchildren have education-focused toys?"

"They do now Sharon because my lady friends and I couldn't believe how fascinating the toys were. My grandson only just five now counts up to twenty-five because that's the maximum number of loads his loader toy can be set for. The scoop until he dials up the number of loads he wishes to carry in it and then he watches the countdown towards zero and so knows when to reset it to the figure he chooses."

"Remarkable. Well congratulations on this successful and original product launch ladies. This ad involving you all will become a classic."

Rhonda received a couple of tentative job offers that day and more followed during the next two weeks and she fended off three approaches by headhunters wishing to meet her.

A huge surge of new interest in Rhonda and orders for the toys occurred when after two weeks the original ad was replaced by another involving three children aged between four and seven acting as sales clerks at a toy department store explaining and demonstrating the toys to a crowd of fascinated adults. The humorous dialogue of each kid was in very adult language who have been coached into expressing seriously immaculate expressions. The 60-second ad was hilarious and would have delighted many viewers and yet it also delivered its sales pitch wonderfully well.

Out of that interest came an urgent invitation for the creator of that advertising campaign to address a gathering of experts. There was standing room only in the auditorium at a planetary session of a regional advertising agency convention when Rhonda Royce was greeted to the rostrum wearing a very short brilliant red tunic, black fishnet stockings and white ankle boots.

"Hi everyone. Isn't working in the ad industry great."

The cheers sent the auditorium rocking.

"I believe in myself. If you guys don't believe in yourselves you are firmly in a rut and will be stay there perhaps until you die wishing you had that edge that a few of us have without appearing to really try."

"You weren't ever going to get beyond mediocrity, were you, because you went soft on that absolute essential of self-belief?"

"I never knew I had it until my boss told me I had it."

Laughter.

"I came into advertising straight from college unintentionally. My uncle recommended my for a position no one wanted, expecting it to bomb. Although academically qualified I had no experience for the position but I ran my tongue over my top lip when the boss Richard Lane was interviewing me to find out what was wrong with the HR manager in recommending I be hired. Apparently he thought I had a dry lip problem so my attempt at being sexy bombed. But Richard attained company presidency coming up through creative. Apparently he thought hiring a kid just out of college that had given me a masters in communications at the age of twenty to possibly get rid of me appeared to be so wrong that it must be right. You see that's being creative but of course there's a risk of being piked to a wall by an angry spear-carrying chairman if such a decision turns to custard."

"Well the rest is history. I succeeded wildly in my role because that was my intention; I have given it absolute focus. No way did I wish to be fired for being a lazy, useless, washed-out little bitch simply because I know you do that at the end of a career, not when beginning it."

Laughter.

"Well you want to know my big secret?"

"Yes" came the calls.

"Well hush and lean forward and promise yourself you'll not divulge this secret to people competing against you for your job."

"Right these two things (Rhonda pointed to her eyes) connect to this thing (pointing to her head) that contains a brain. You use that interconnection between them. It's called visualization. Don't ask me how it works creatively because I have no idea. Apparently I have it and harness it, but I don't know how. I just see things from my mind and make them happen because I push to achieve that with utter confidence."

"Let me fictionalize to indicate how I works for me. A guy walks in with an orange and says, "I want to sell more of these. I represent orange growers."

"Do I think a great looking hunk like him would do better selling women's panties?"

"No."

"Do I ask myself why sell more oranges to an over-supplied market at peak times?"

"No I don't."

"I'd probably look at him and see him disappearing into a sea of oranges with his arm up and crying help and thinking I like oranges and kid myself they might keep me slender when I reach the 'I'm getting fat' era that afflicts both women and men, ah most of them."

"My trusty brain, and it will be trusty provided you believe in yourself, yawns and wakes up and runs a film clip for me that delivers the message that says keep thin consuming orange juice and then a voice yells at me saying 'But its more healthier to squeeze your own.'

"So I sigh and say how much Mr Client do you wish to spend?"

"He'll probably say he was thinking fifty grand and I'd say something like poultry growers spend more than that attracting customers to buy their chicken shit. He then blinks, asks me for a date and then remember why he's there will says something like, his industry's national council is prepared to spend up to a million bucks on a good campaign."

"I say sorry Mr Client, no date because I'm loyal to my boyfriend but that's not to say you were a jerk asking. Come back in the morning and I'll have a draft campaign for filming and page ads and billboards to show you."

"He'll says but agencies usually take days, weeks to reach that stage and I'll say we are not only creative in what we do here Mr Client but we believe you want a rapid response otherwise you wouldn't be here and we are eager to see our fees pouring into our bank account that is in overdraft."

"He'll says something like, "Well that's a refreshing attitude and I'll say something like that depends when he is up and running in the morning because Lillian over there was likely to say yes to a date."

"In the morning I show him my sketch of an orange, humanized a little, walking with a gorgeous blonde and the orange says, 'Squeeze me babe. Having me freshly squeezed will help keep you healthy and happy'."

"Mr Client will say something like, "Huh, I was thinking of a buy more oranges come-on."

"I'll say isn't your industry with bulging cool stores already doing that and he'll look at me with enlightenment and I'll hand him the sketch and say take that out on the street and stop women and ask them what they think about that as a message. Within the hour the guy will return smiling almost as sexily as he smiled at Lillian and say, "Let's email this concept to my boss immediately, seeking authorization and I'll point to my computer with the email and illustration already loaded and tell him to add his message and the address and send it off."

"Well that's it, I think creatively and see myself as the facilitator to make things happen. Nothing to it really."

People laughed and clapped and then people asked questions or presented difficult scenarios and asked how she'd deal with that. At the end Rhonda received huge applause when the chairman had thanked her for 'probably the most simplified and yet outstanding address this regional event has ever had."

Work flowed in for Rhonda's team and it was suggested she shift into a larger area, swapping with the print ad department and take on more staff but she declined the offer saying she felt she'd work best with her small team as they now worked as a fully integrated unit, with her pulling the strings.

* * *

Enrolments to Clifford University where Rhonda's boyfriend Mark was a instructor were well down for the autumn semester, probably due to the economic recession, and so he was asked by the head of the university's marketing and publicity department to ask Rhonda would she consider making some suggestions for advertisements in local newspapers without fee as a donation to the institution.

"You don't have to say yes."

"I know Mark. Do you think this could help your advancement?"

"Possibly in a small way."

"Then I'll do it. I'll try to involve you so you do come to notice."

"Me?"

"Yes. Now don't be shy."

The ad ran for two weeks and the university was more than happy with the surge in late enrolments.

The ad had a picture of Mark wearing a black academic gown and the words said,

'Hi, I'm Mark, a senior instructor at Clifford University. My parents went into debt to help me complete a great education. I delivered dinner-time pizzas at college and groomed vehicles commercially at evenings when at university. Thanks mom and dad for backing me. Money was short but we realized if I took a year off to earn money I might kiss my senior education goodbye. Gee that was a close one. Think twice about taking the easy option won't you guys. Commit to Clifford and the university will commit to you.'

A week later when Mark arrived at Rhonda's apartment for sex, and then to take her to dinner, he was beaming.

"I've been invited to apply for a position of assistant-professor."

"Oh congratulations. That's wonderful news. Even if you don't win the position and only get to review stage at least you know you are on that plateau and its much better to be invited to apply than just to apply, isn't it?"

"Immeasurably so."

Rhonda said, "Come on, let's go to the Champagne Bar and celebrate."

"Um what about sex."

"Oh Mark, we can do that anytime. This is a benchmark in your career. Let's sit, drink and talk about your success."

"Oh all right."

"Jesus Mark, get a life."

Later that evening when Mark rolled off Rhonda, leaving the poor woman with rubbery knees, revealed by the way she walked to the bathroom and he thought she looked a little temporarily bow-egged as well, Mark lurched over to the chair and pulled out a little black square box tied in a red ribbon and placed it on the pillow. He was almost drunkenly asleep when brought fully alert by Rhonda's squeal, "Ooooh, what's this!"

"You know," Mr Romantic yawned.

"May I open it?"

"Yes."

"Oooh, is it what I think it is."

Mr Romantic said was it and studied the ceiling impatiently.

It was of course and engagement ring. Rhonda yelled in delight and said it was perfect even though she'd had no say in the purchase. "Oh thank you darling. This is so exciting," she said, kissing Mark who said he was glad she was so excited and he turned over to nap.

"I accept your proposal of marriage," Rhonda gushed, aware he'd not proposed.

"I thought you would," he yawned.

It was a beautiful ring and Rhonda loved it. She was aware she hadn't received a memorable proposal but thought if they married it would be even more memorable having skipped the formal proposal and not having helped to choose the ring. She was not big into ceremony and knew Mark wouldn't have spent the big bucks on the ring of three diamonds set in platinum unless he was serious about her.

Looking at the ring she'd placed on her finger unassisted, Rhonda thought a solid, non-competitive and totally reliable and unflappable guy like Mark was exactly the perfect partner for her. The big plus was he has great at sex and his family were so lovely. Although appalled Celeste and Charles had agreed to that untruth being written about them in the recruitment ad for Mark's university that they'd gone into debt to send Mark to college and university, they'd bought his explanation that if the promotion worked it could enhance his career prospects.

"Oh Mark, I was called to the vice-chancellor's office today where I was invited to join a five-person committee being formed and led by the vice-chancellor to plan celebrations in two years of Clifford's 150th jubilee since it was chartered. I accepted being nominated and that has to be approved by the senate."

"Mark was do you say about that?"

"Ohmigod, you are asleep. Please try to be a tad more exciting for me darling."

Rhonda yawned.

THE END