These Dopes Can Kill You!

Okay, so where am I?

Have you ever dealt with someone so thick you wanted to actually cry or just leave the room without a word?

This is where I am...dealing with an obstinate, uniformed workforce will make you ill. As a matter of fact, idiots in the office are just as harmful to your well-being as cigarettes, caffeine, or greasy food. I thought it was me who was being unreasonable but then I ran across an eye-opening study by Dr. Dagmar Andersson. She confirms that those dopes can kill you!

Dr. Andersson, says her team studied 500 heart attack patients, and was puzzled to find 62 percent had relatively few of the physical risk factors commonly blamed for heart attacks. “Then we questioned them about lifestyle habits, and almost all of these low-risk patients told us they worked with people so stupid they can barely find their way from the parking lot to their office. And their heart attack came less than 12 hours after having a major confrontation with one of these oafs.

“One woman had to be rushed to the hospital after her assistant shredded important company tax documents instead of copying them. A man told us he collapsed right at his desk because the woman at the next cubicle kept asking him for correction fluid — for her computer monitor.

“You can cut back on smoking or improve your diet,” Dr. Andersson says, “but most people have very poor coping skills when it comes to stupidity — they feel there’s nothing they can do about it, so they just internalize their frustration until they finally explode.”

Stupid co-workers can also double or triple someone’s work load, she explains.

“Many of our subjects feel sorry for the drooling idiots they work with, so they try to cover for them by fixing their mistakes. One poor woman spent a week rebuilding client records because a clerk put them all in the ‘recycle bin’ of her computer and then emptied it — she thought it meant the records would be recycled and used again.”

You can’t always choose the people you work with, but if a hire makes work harder for you and others you certainly have cause to complain. Of course, by taking action you might put this dumb coworker out of a job which is a tough thing to put on your shoulders, regardless of how incapable one may be. So, before taking action, you need to see the full picture. When you’re truly sure you’re dealing with a coworker you just can’t work with, here are different possible actions:

Find the root of the problem – they might just be dumb, poor learners, or don’t understand what you keep telling them and fear your reaction if they tell you. Give them a chance to offer an explanation. Maybe you are a terrible teacher and you just don’t realize it. Maybe they just struggle with certain tasks and don’t know what to do. In this case, you can ask how to teach them and work with them a little more closely. Of course, it is not your responsibility to spend a lot of your time educating a coworker. They should come in mostly knowledgeable about how to do their job. You shouldn’t spend hours training them in basic tasks they should know how to do, unless you have the time and the desire to help someone else improve. Most of us have our actual work, however, and can’t devote this kind of time—especially when we’re not sure we’ll actually get anywhere. But if you can spare some moments each day, you can help someone struggling who will, in turn, remember what you did and want to help you in return some day.

Ask another coworker to try – ask someone on your level or above you to work with this problematic coworker for a little while and assess the situation. Your smarter coworkers may not find a problem. If they don’t, you have to consider that you have some sort of issue with this “dumb” coworker and need to resolve it.

Talk to a Manager, Boss, or Human Resources – human resources operates, to some extent, to help solve issues between employees. If someone doesn’t carry their weight, employers want to know. They, presumably, don’t want to waste their money on an underperforming member of the team. If you decide to report the problem to the company, follow this two-step plan:

Schedule an appointment with HR –  explain the issue in as unbiased of a manner as you can. Suggest a few options that don’t include termination.

Find humor in their stupidity – sometimes dumb coworkers are here to stay despite their lack of intelligence. Sometimes you’re the only one who thinks they’re dumb. Regardless of the situation, if you fail to resolve it through the above means you should stop fighting the battle and relax. Try to find the humor in their stupidity. Replace the frustration with a laugh. If you didn’t have to work with them, you’d probably find a lot of their actions funny.

If you don’t try some of these things, trust me (and Dr. Andersson), those dopes will kill you!

Top 10 Local Los Angeles Television Commercials of the 1970s

Okay, so where am I?

I just finished my judging assignment for the Telly Awards and while there are so great spots deserving of some of the top spots, most left my wanting for a bygone era where commercials that I watched on independent local Los Angeles channels inspired me to become one of those Madison Avenue ad men.

As an 11-time winner, I am Proud to serve as a #Telly Jury Council Member for the @tellyawards 40th anniversary, and lend my insights to help review this year's best video work! There's still time to enter your work too. ➡️https://t.co/QoA4udO00X pic.twitter.com/3HnxclrlXh

— Michael Lloyd (@MarketingVIP) February 19, 2019

The 1970s had some iconic local spots and I would watch the ABC Afternoon Movie of the Day mostly to watch the commercials before homework, chores and cooking (yes, I was the de facto chef for multiple households back then. The afternoon movie was a popular practice of local television stations from the 1950s through the 1970s, consisting of the daily weekday showing of old films usually between 4:30 and 6:30 P.M. If the film ran two hours or more, it was split into two parts (to be continued really stunk before DVRs and VCRs).

I needed a fix, so I compiled a near complete list of the best commercial spots to appear in Los Angeles in my formative years. My trip down memory lane produced 11 commercials. The dialogue from the last spot will blow you away.

Enjoy the good times…

Number 1
Universal Studios Tour
Featuring Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock freaked me out, but always got my attention. His celebrity knew no boundaries having cameos in all of his movies and a creepy voice to boot. I lived literally across the street from Universal Studios and I wanted to go there every time I saw this ad; and why wouldn't I? To keep up the entertainment value of the tour (and to compete with Disneyland), Universal Studios adding fixed attractions to the tour, beginning with the Flash Flood in 1968, the Parting of the Red Sea (from The Ten Commandments and, uh, the Bible) in 1973, the Collapsing Bridge in 1974, and the Ice Tunnel in 1975. In 1976, Universal added what would become its biggest tour attraction to that date: Jaws. Based on Steven Spielberg's break-out hit Jaws recreated the village of Amity from the movie, with a 25-foot animatronic shark emerging from the water to attack the tram.

Number 2
Zachary All
I swear this spot ran during every other commercial break. Edward G. Nalbandian was the clothing king of the Miracle Mile. His storefront was the stuff of legend.

Number 3
Earl Sheib Auto Painting
He could paint any car, any time, for $49.95...and $10 free metal work. Who could say no to this offer?

Number 4
Cal Worthington "My Dog Spot"
For nearly a twenty-five years, from the 1960s until the 1990s, Worthington ran a series of offbeat television and radio advertisements for his auto dealerships patterned loosely after the pioneering "oddball" advertisements of Earl "Madman" Muntz. They began as a parody of a competitor who appeared in advertisements with a puppy recently adopted from the pound. They were known as the "My Dog Spot" ads because each commercial would introduce "Cal Worthington and his dog Spot!" However, the "dog" was never a dog. In most cases, it was an exotic animal being led around on a leash, such as a tiger or elephant.

Number 5
RTD
The bus system in Los Angeles produced a commercial that fed on the stereotypes of LA traffic. Funny thing about this ad is that if you rode the bus you would still have sit in traffic. But that didn't matter if an alluring model fed you a breakfast apple from the seat next to you and if you were easily saving a thousand dollars a year!

Number 6
Jerseymaid Singing Cows
A catchy country tune straight from the farm would have you imitating this spot at recess the next day at school. But why didn't they have chocolate frozen yogurt and only strawberry. No kid ever ate strawberry. I never got an answer.

Number 7
Aames Home Loan
Character actor Patrick Campbell was forever in trouble with his finances and always accompanied by his faithful chicken. I bet I saw this spot fifteen hundred times in the seventies to the point where I could still remember this entire spot, word for word. Look at the way the copy flows from the announcer's voice:

If you've got problems and you feel like there's no relief in sight...

Get out the yellow pages because there somebody in there who can help you borrow thousands of dollars on your home.

Aames Home Loan.

Number 8
Pup 'n' Taco Train
One of the first cheap fast-food chains to integrate American food and Mexican food on their menus, the media buyers at Pup 'n' Taco practically invented the remnant spot with their :10 second commercials that drove you back into your regular-scheduled programming. More bang for your buck. Taco Bell scooped up their 99 locations in 1984 and they ceased operations. 

Number 9
Continental Airlines Wide Body DC-10
Featuring Vin Scully

Smooth as silk, Vin takes you from the ballpark seats to airline seats. Great copy is the touchtone for the spokesperson commercial in this one.

Number 10
Swanson Hungry-Man Dinner
Featuring Steve Garvey and Tommy LaSorda of the Dodgers

I don't know what the record is for holding a product close to your face in a television commercial, but this one has to be at the top of the charts.

Honorable Mention
Must Inappropriate Dialogue of All Time
Ralph Williams Bay Shore Car
Although from Northern California, Ralph got his start in Los Angeles and this is an all-time classic that really aired:

The Biz: Advertising Agency Origins, Part 2

In the last installment of The Biz, I told you origin stories about my life in the New York ad agency world, including phone stabbings, death threats, and furniture throwing. That was just the start of my eccentric co-workers from whom I learned anger management, or lack thereof. Here's a few more stories to finish off the "To Be Continued..." I left you with last time.

If I were forced to choose, I would say that copywriters are the wildest of all of the creative people. I one had a kid named Andy Pillarsky working for me when I was at XYZ Advertising*. He was the greatest flake I every worked with. He was high on everything in the world, you name it—pills, marijuana, plastic model glue—only God knows what else. He arrived to the office nearly catatonic. It got to the point where if I looked into his dilated pupils another time I would literally lose my mind. I mean, he was the embodiment of the burned-out agency guy. Burned out on life, not the ad biz because he was always clutch when the client needed great copy. And, he was great, so I never wrote him up or sent him away.

The material issue with Andy was not the state that he arrived in, but when he arrived. Some days he would show up at five in the evening. He used to tell me that he had vampire tendencies in a former life and it spilled over into this life. He was terrified of mornings. He hated mornings, so he would hide in bed until the sun started to dip into the distance. It wasn’t that he was dodging work—he used to work until the wee hours of the morning—it was simply that he was working a different schedule which wreaked havoc with our traffic manager’s anal scale of scheduling grids and what-not.

His problems, our problems, extended far past rudimentary project management. Creative directors frequently couldn’t find him, because of course, he was still in bed. Account managers were constantly trying to pin him down for their copy only to see an empty desk. And there he was, sleepwalking to his desk at four or five in the evening, more likely than not in Zombie Mode. It’s a fairly well known fact that account guys have never understood how to handle creative that are high as a kite. And then other copywriters saw Andy and his schedule and wanting part of the flexible work hours action so they too could sleep in the morning.

I was always staying late to counsel him, “Andy, you’ve have get here earlier earlier. Everyone is looking for you during the day, you know that, don’t you?” Andy would always say something along these lines, “I can’t help it. I’ll do anything else you want, but I can’t help it. These vampire lives overwhelm me. I have to come in at this time.” I said, “Andy, listen, I can’t protect you forever. The bosses are going to get wind of it eventually and they are going to can you.” Yet, he wouldn’t listen.

They finally decided to fire him because he was causing too much anxiety for the rest of the team. The day I was told to let him go, he comes into my office at 8:30 A.M. and says, “Chief, “I figured out how to get in early. I want a raise.”

This caught me off guard to say the least, so I asked him what he meant and the conversation went something like this:

Andy: “I’ve found a new girlfriend and I need that raise so that she can leave her apartment and move into a better one with her. Not only is she a vampire hunter who can cure me, but after we move in together, she’ll wake me up early because she isn’t scared of the morning like I am and then I’ll be able to get into work on time. I won’t oversleep.”

Me: “Andy, you need more money from the agency so you and your girlfriend can move in and she can get you up in the morning, right?”

Andy: “Exactly!”

Me: “Andy, did you ever hear of an alarm clock?”

Andy: “Did you ever try to fuck an alarm clock?”

Andy went from XYZ Advertising to several other agencies where he did respectable work, but he always managed to get fired. Now he’s retired in Colorado where it’s legal to get high. He’s been fired from some of the best agencies in town. One director fired him Vito Corleone style. He went to the fish market and bought a huge tuna, wrapped it in newspaper and put it on Andy’s desk. That told Andy that he was done there. 

Most copywriters are suspicious. Andy felt that people and things were always snubbing him. Take the copier. Everybody was coming up to the copier at XYZ Advertising and making copies. But when Andy put his piece of paper into the copier, there were some strange noises and the original came out of the machine all smudged and torn. He took it out of the machine, looked up, and screamed in his monotone voice, “Even the Xerox hates me.”

There’s another copywriter named Sarah*—extremely nice lady, quiet, well-mannered, education, except that she had a thing about suing people. Typically, she was suing two or three people at a time (I swear). It was a known fact in the business that if you hire Sarah, you know she is going to spend most of her time in court. She simply loved to be the victim, sue people, and spend time with the lawyers. For example, what she used to do is walk down the street and wait at the bus stop for a bus. Imagine the bus stopping two feet from the curb and she has to walk through a puddle to board. The first thing she says to the driver is, “What is this, you stopping so far from the curb?” Bus drivers, who deal with crazies all day long will tell her to move her ass to the rear of the bus, and naturally, the next day she knocks out a letter to the government agency running the busses letting them them they’re being sued for whatever crazy reason Sarah dreams up.

When she was working at XYZ advertising she once took on one of the big airline carriers after a lousy flight. One of her side jobs is weekend stock racing and the lousy (and late) flight caused her to miss the race. So she wrote the airlines that she was planning to sue. She got a couple of mid-level pencil pushers to call as a result of that letter. They called her up and said, “How can we settle this issue?” Sarah said, “I think the only way you can settle it is in my office. Why don’t you try to be here at eleven-thirty in the morning?”

It happened that I needed the conference room that day and when I arrived, I saw Sarah sitting and talking with two very well-dressed men who looked as disturbed as possible. She was dictating something and our marketing coordinator was also there taking notes. I had no idea what was going on, so I spotted our traffic manager outside the conference room and told her I needed the room for a client meeting. She told me that Sarah had been in there for a long time and there’s no sign of it breaking up. I wound up meeting my client in my not-media-ready office.

Later on, I asked Sarah which client he was meeting with in the conference room. She said, “No, that wasn’t a client. Those were some guys from airlines and I was dictating my terms to them. I think they’re going to accept so I probably won’t sue.” I said, “You mean you took agency time as well as the conference room?” Sarah said, “Well, Michael, it’s very important to me that this thing gets straightened out.”

We fired her the next day. She never sued us, or me.

All the wackiness doesn’t stay on the creative side. On the account side, which is the direct link between the agency and the client, has its share of insanity. The big disparity is that the creative side takes advantage of its so-called creative reputation, and creative can where t-shirts under cardigans, and wear see-through shirts and ripped pants and dilate their pupils. The account side has to stay straight and narrow and wear Stella McCartney or Hugo Boss and stay sober.

The pressure sometimes gets to the account guys, however, and when they wig out it’s something to behold. I know a horde of account people who once had to make a trip to Cincinnati, to visit the folks who run a division of Wilson & Wilson*. That division happens to be prominent in the menstrual business: they make a little item called Snoogles*. So here is this group of New York agency account people winging it in Midwest, spending the morning talking about the advertising plans of Snoogles before going out to lunch.

Turns out the account folks load up a bit too much on the Midwestern martinis. Back from lunch, the big cheese from the division says he wants everyone around the table to brainstorm about other uses for Snoogles. You know, develop new business, investigate new markets, conquer new horizons, that sort of thing. The guys from New York are sitting there in a haze and one of the account women pipes up, “Hey, how about using Snoogles as torches for dwarfs?” When you’re living in Midwest and you get fired by this particular corporate giant, there’s not many companies where you can land safely. So the tendency is to downplay the smart-ass cracks about Snoogles. The New York guys all break up at the idea of dwarfs using Snoogles as torches, but the Wilson & Wilson big cheese is not impressed and everybody shuts up.

They get through the brainstorming session, and the next item on the agenda is a tour of the manufacturing plant. You can’t get out of Wilson & Wilson without this tour. It’s your get out of jail free card. So, with the Big Cheese leading the way, they meander through the factory and the group stops at this extremely bizarre, very strange-looking object. The Big Cheese proudly explains that this is an artificial vagina, in fact its name is the testgina, and naturally it verifies how good Snoogles are. The New York folks are looking at these testginas and they’re biting through their tongues to keep from laughing. The Big Cheese keeps going on about how good these testginas are and finally one New Yorker says, “And if you’re real nice, they let you take the testgina to dinner.” That triggered the account people collapsing on the factory floor in roaring laughter, the president turning angry red, and the advertising manager paralyzed with fear.

Needless to say, we didn’t win the business.

I once worked for a vice president of an agency whom we called “Schelp-Rock.” Schelp-Rock always managed to sit through a presentation and mess it all up at the end. He had this dreadful tendency to insult the client and he was truly dangerous to have around. We used to take bets on when he would open his mouth and blow the pitch. We kept telling him, ”Please stay away from presentations if you can’t stop insulting people.” Schelp-Rock would respond, “I’m going to behave, I’m really going to let you all do what you do best.”

One day we were pitching for a tourism department of some Middle Eastern country and the bagman for the dictator shows up to hear our pitch. The idea was if you got your pitch past the bagman, then you got to pitch to the top guy himself. The pitch went on for an eternity, something like four hours, and Schelp-Rock was a wunderkind. He sat there, not saying a word, and I was beginning to feel sorry about the way we yelled at him. “He’s great,” I said to myself, “he’s behaving like a real giant of industry. I’m sorry we hazed him before the meeting about his performance.”

For three hours and 57 minutes hours he was perfect. The meeting ends and I say to myself, “Thank goodness, we made it, the pitch is over and he hasn’t blown it, he hasn’t insulted the guys, he hasn’t done anything wrong.” So Schelp-Rock puts his arm around the bagman and as they were walking out the door—out the door mind you—Schelp-Rock says, “Mahmoud, you’re a nice guy. We’re going to be working together, I’m sure, and you’ll see we’re nice people, too. If you keep up the niceness, maybe we’ll give you back Israel.” I knew right then and there we were cooked.

....To Be Continued...

*-Names are changed to protect the guilty.