There’s a story in our family that gets handed down from one generation to the next.
“Why did grandma marry grandpa?”
“To get rid of him.”
What?
Well, it seems that during their time of dating, grandpa kept bugging grandma to marry him. Finally, she gave in, just to keep him quiet – or, in other words, to get “rid” of him.
He kept quiet for the next seventy years. Except during card games, when I can’t print what he would bellow.
It was a good marriage, nonetheless.
Years later, I worked in the advertising department of the Chicago Sun-Times, and experienced something similar. I was new in my professional work, and was taking the tiny classified ads for things like used Chevys and thank-yous for prayers answered by St. Jude.
Each year, for Valentine’s Day, our department offered graphics of little hearts and cupids that could be placed with messages of affection for loved ones. The Sun-Times was the first to think of this idea, and each year they pushed their promotions for the special ads. We ad-takers got a small commission for each little heart and other figures.
In those days, people smoked in offices, and in the days leading up to Feb. 14, one could see a huge cloud of smoke travel from our office into the hallway when the door was opened.
When on the phone with clients, we found that people were generally happy to be able to put a cute image in their message. What I found after many calls was that you could push people a little bit, and get a bigger sale. I’m sure that sometimes they said “yes” just to get rid of me.
I had some twinge of guilt over that afterwards, but at the time just chalked it up to the practice of sales.
These are the things that challenge a person of conscience in the area of sales and advertising. How do you keep yourself honest?
