I stand by my decision. If I thought it was a stupid thing to do I obviously would not have done it. I thought it was brilliant. I still think its brilliant. I simply think my dad is wrong and is being close minded. I think it will be more effective than anything weve done. I think it catches the customers eye and actual forces them to notice it.
Im talking about an advertising decision I made. Dad isnt around as much as he used to be. Hes out doing more hands on work instead of being handy for me to "run things by him". Any big decision I usual run by him before I decide.
Well we have an advertising spot that is "ours" we get first dibs on it and if we dont keep advertising on it we lose our spot and might not ever get the spot back.
This is for a regional phonebook cover. Weve got a 3x4 spot front and center. It costs $250.00 to keep our spot this year and have thousands printed. Well, due to the economy my dad has instructed me to keep advertising down to a minimum, he instructed me to make damn sure its worth it and people will actually read it...
Ok. So this guy calls, dad is gone, he needs an answer by the end of the day. I brainstormed all day on how to make this ad POP, and how to make it be more noticeable to everyone. I wanted to justify spending the money on it bc i didnt want to lose our spot.
I had no way of running this by dad. It was just something id have to decide. No big deal, i make far bigger decisions every single damn day...
The only defference is, Dad always thinks my decisions are the right ones.
Except this decision. Dad did not like this decision. I just got a boot up my ass for this decision. He was cursing and yelling, slamming his fists on his desks, burrowing his brows, his face got all read...
I truly didnt understand why he was so upset. I thought it was brilliant. There was no way our ad would get skimmed over, no fucking way. People would stop and think "WTF" and read our ad and think "ahh, ok"....It would register.
I still think it was brilliant, dad still thinks im a complete retard. Yes, he called me a retard. He made me feel absolutly horrible, about myself, not my decision.
As he sat there looking at me with disgust on his face wishing i would explode into a million pieces, i could tell he was giving me a little window of opportunity to apologize my ass off.
Well, this is what I told him "There is only one thing that I am sorry for, Im sorry that I wasnt able to run this idea past you before we decided. However you were not here. It sucks that you think im such and idiot and that this was the stupidest thing ive ever done, but i still think was a good decision and only time will tell exactly how dumb or brilliant it was. All i can tell you is that people will notice"
He just disagrees to put it simply. He thinks no one will bother, people are lazy and its hard enough to get people to read a fucking ad without making it "confusing"...Confusing? Whatever. Its not confusing.
So by now i bet your wondering wtf i did right?
Ok, I had them run our ad upside down. Everyone elses is right side up and ours is right there upside down for all to notice...
I gauran-damn-tee that everysingle person who picks up that cover will think "oh hey, look someone made a mistake, this ad is upside down" then they will flip it over and read it to themselves and think "hehe, i caught it, i wonder who else noticed"
It just sucks super bad because i was so sure that dad would be on my side. I was so sure he would think it was clever too...
So often we think so much a like and im very disapointed that he is so narrowminded on this one and so quick to chastize me over it...
He made me feel like crap, its all i can do to keep from crying...
