Agency

In Which Berry Ruins David's Day

just a week before Mother's Day

Berry set down his desk phone. He could feel a trickle of sweat running down the centre of his back, dampening his shirt.

Henry (a.k.a Mister Waffles) raised his huge head and sniffed the air. Animals were so tuned in, Berry noted. He absently pulled a dog treat out of the jar he'd stashed in his desk drawer and threw it over. The bulldog caught the treat in his massive jaws, took another concerned sniff of the air and farted (presumably to cover the scent of Berry's stress).

"Thanks for that," said Berry, talking to the dog. "I'm going to visit the art department with some bad news. You stay here."

Henry/Waffles set his head down on his paws and watched Berry leave. Better him than me, the dog thought, already drifting into a comfortable sleep.

***

Berry rolled up his sleeves and entered the creative team room. Otto was sitting on Margot's desk watching her work. From across the room, David seemed to be observing them both.

"Is Niall around?" Berry asked brightly, as though he weren't here to ruin everyone's day.

David turned to him. "Niall left me in charge. What do you need?"

Berry hesitated. "I think this is something Niall will probably want to manage."

David smoothed his perfect part and stood. "As I said, Niall left me in charge. What's going on?"

The two men faced each other like black and white hats in a spaghetti western, fingers twitching at their holsters. Berry decided to delay the inevitable by calling out to Otto instead.

"Otto, can I talk to you privately first?" he nodded toward the hallway. David narrowed his eyes and sat down.

Otto shrugged and followed Berry out of the room.

"What's all that about?" Otto asked once they were out in the hall. "Just trying to rile him up?"

Berry shook his head. "No, giving you the chance to escape before he puts it together."

"Puts what together?"

"That Margot's the one you used to do the diaper work," Berry whispered in annoyance. "I can see him looking at you two, wondering why in the hell the diaper account guy is suddenly hanging around with his Art Director. How do you think that looks?"

"Oh, that. Forget it. I already told David I got a friend of mine to do it as a favour. He's off the scent, don't worry."

Berry looked as unconvinced as David had.

"Did he buy that? Why are you in here anyway?"

"Just taking a break. Thought I'd watch the geniuses at work, that's all."

Berry rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, lay off the hovering around Margot, will you? She has just as much to lose if they figure out she was the freelancer. You're probably making her nervous."

Otto grinned, patted Berry on the (damp) back and moved off down the hall toward the Accounts area.

"Whatever you say, boss!" he called behind him.

With Otto suitably dispatched, Berry re-entered the room.

"Now what?" asked David.

"I have some bad news..." started Berry, taking a seat. "I realize this is going to cause some difficulties--"

"Just spit it out, Ross. We're busy packaging up the final files for your Atrabax job."

"Well, it's about that, actually. The client..."

Even as Berry's mouth went to form the next word, David's face dropped. When an account person said 'the client...' you could be sure something was about to go very wrong.

"... the client has changed their mind." Berry finished.

"No," said David, wiping his suddenly sweaty hands on his artfully distressed denim pants. "No, they can't. It's too late. The campaign launches in just a few days. The shelf toppers have already been delivered to drug stores across the country."

Berry moved his shoulders to his ears and grimaced. "I know, pal. What can I say? I'm just the messenger. The CEOs wife heard about the warrior-woman concept and... well, she didn't like it. She thought it was sexist. Or sizeist? An unrealistic representation of women, she thinks. She put the word in the CEO's ear and now he's squashing it. He wants us to go in a different direction."

"There IS no different direction!" shouted David in exasperation. "Why does this woman we've never met get to decide what good creative is? This is outrageous."

In truth, it was hardly outrageous. Anyone who's worked in an agency knows that a situation like this is neither outrageous nor remotely unexpected. The world is full of CEO's wives, husbands, Aunt Amelia's friend from lawn bowling... opinions abound, and clients are very easily spooked -- most often at the last possible minute.

"I know, I know," tutted Berry. "Total bullshit. But what can I do? They want something else - at least for the online ads. I did tell them there was no way to reprint the shelf toppers." He smiled like a hero.

"Well, that's even worse," said David bitterly. "We'll have shelf-toppers with one message and online ads with another. Total fucking mess. Niall is not going to go for this. He's just not."

"It's not Niall's call," Berry replied. "And unfortunately, after what he did at the pitch, making fun of their regular campaign, he doesn't have any leverage with the execs there at all."

The two men stared silently at one another for a long moment.

Berry was just as unhappy about this as David. After all, rework would mean more billings to the account, which was already massively overbilled.

Still, it was some consolation to have ruined David's day.

"Okay, pain team listen up..." shouted David at Margot and Martin. "We have work to do. If you had plans tonight, cancel them."