KIA Motors and Canadian Editors
Re-entry to the world of self-employment didn’t cause anywhere near the amount of difficulty I’d imagined. Within a month of finishing The Nightmare Before Christmas, found myself at an ad agency, Goldberg, Moser, O’Neill. The firm’s principals recently split from Chiat-Day and in addition to the work that went with them . . . ahem . . . GMO acquired the KIA Motors account.
As a Jersey Boy, I did ask about the acronym for an ad agency with a car account.
Me: “Too bad it’s not Goldberg, Toser, O’Neill.”
Daft California Copywriter: “Toser?”
Me: “Yes. GTO.”
Daft California Copywriter: “I don’t get it.”
Me: “GTO. A muscle car from the 70’s. The joke then was GTO stood for Gas, Tires, and Oil. If you owned the car, you purchased a lot of gas, tires, and oil.”
Daft California Copywriter: “Why?”
Me: “What account are you on?”
Daft California Copywriter: “Our baby food client.”
Me: “Go away.”
Putting aside the GTO joke, the agency introduced me to a part of the business in which I had not much exposure the first six years I’d spent in California, editorial and post-production. GMO purchased two AVID systems, and hired a Canadian as staff editor.
The Canadian, a very good editor by the way, lived in the United States, dated American girls, and worked in the United States at a much better job than any Canuck Company was going to provide for him.
During every session I had to hear about what a utopia was his home country. Canada, as you all know, has a population of 78 people, 11 moose, and a couple of Grizzly Bears.
Me: “If it’s so fab, what are you doing here? I mean the
maple syrup must be free flowing. The hockey pucks raining
from the heavens and all that.”
Mister Labatts: “Did you know I can get a splenectomy in
Saskatchewan for $1.98?”
Me: “Do you need one?”
Mister Labatts: “No. I just know I could get one if I needed it. Here it would be trillions of dollars.”
Me: “Good thing you don’t need one, because you’d either be out trillions of dollars if you had it done here, or someone in Canada or the United States would be out trillions if you had your spleen removed by a failed hockey player.”
Mister Labatts: “Why would someone be out trillions if I had my splenectomy in Canada?”
Me: “Do we really need to go over this again? Why don’t we try doing some editing for a few minutes and take a break from the removal of internal organs and socialized medicine?”
The editor did do some fine work during my stint at GMO, but if north of the border is so darned great, perhaps he should have looked into plying his trade in Vancouver or Montreal or Toronto. Over the next several years, I produced film and TV commercials in all three cities and their production market is very good.
Comments