Pigeons seem to flock to Sony's headquarters at 55th and Madison Avenue. The Chippendale architecture is a tall piece of Americana originally created to warm-up the image of AT&T. Now it Americanizes the image of one of Hollywood's game-changers: Sony America. Anyway, pigeons love to roost in its nooks and crannies.
Across the street at the Bernard Stein Agency, road-weary Account Executives bring their accounts to a more corporate agency- well-versed in making accounts 'house'. But there is also the chance to work on Fortune 500 accounts. And the movie biz accounts at this agency, Bernard's membership in the Friars Club and financially backing movies attract ambitious pigeons to roost too.
Mary, a middle-aged, co-founder of the Bernie Stein Agency, glanced up from her desk to the wall of tvs focused on various stock markets worldwide, and then walked quickly down the hall to Bernard Stein's office. A dark office with all black furniture, it faced the Sony building-an account the agency just acquired by attracting the Account Executive who controlled it and who happened to had been at the other Bernie's agency.
The only thing bigger than Bernie's desk...is Bernie.He is a massive man. With his wide girth, and water displacement, if he swam into New York Harbor, tug boats would accompany him, shooting water on either side to announce the arrival of an important ship. Befitting the size of the man and size of the agency-with offices around the US -and now the world as part of the Omnipotent family of companies-the meticulously appointed office with the Fred Flintsyone-sized furniture,
Mary sits in front of Bernie's desk. The chair gasps as Mary ample butt squeezes the air out of the seat cushion like a beltch.
'We will be putting Herb in the small office in the back...not the front office.'
Bernard
"Does he control the business or not?'
Mary
'Maybe not. They just met with Bernie's sister-in-law and their Creative Director, Keith. They were impressed with Keith and the work.'
Bernard
'Well, he has other business. Wish I knew that before I took him to the Friar's Club. Make him feel like we still want him and that we don't care about that account. We believe in his talent-kind-of-thing. If he doesn't deliver...'
Mary
'We'll have Maddy assist him...good at grabbing contact info-in case we have to let him go.'
'Let me make a quick phone call.'
Mary goes to the far end of Bernard's long desk and dials a phone.
Mary
'Herb. Mary. Did we call you at a good time. Oh, are smiling here and meeting up with their friends for lunch. When will you be joining us? Oh, great. We'll don't worry about that. We have faith in you. We're buying talent...not an account. We'll look forward to seeing you then. Bye.'
'He's coming tomorrow. He's not letting Bernie know that he knows Bernie's sister-in-law, Cindy and the Creative Director, Keith, presented new ideas to his account last week. So we're going to present new ideas to them with Herb.'
Bernard
'Done. Might want to go after getting that Keith person here. Let's eat. I'm hungry.'
A pigeon flew off the ledge outside Bernard's window...making room for another to roost.
No comments:
Post a Comment