Advertising 101

The company I'm working actually consists of three businesses: two "advertising agencies" and one medical education agency. There is a major restructuring going on here, featuring the Aussie and a supporting cast foreign interlopers, that is meant to make the place more competitive in this market. So, part of the process includes me giving a presentation about How An Advertising Agency Works to every employee.

Of course, no one likes being told (however indirectly) that what they have been doing is not exactly 100% what they are supposed to be doing. So, the reactions of my audience have ranged from stony silence to poorly disguised disgust. But, at the end of every presentation, they clap politely and say, "that was very interesting, Colleen-san."

Insult to injury, we can't get them all in a room at the same time, so I've had to make the same presentation six times in the last two weeks. Yesterday I had to go to Osaka to present it. And you know how I feel about Osaka.

Today, we had a meeting about How to Figure Out What Everyone Does All Day Long which spawned two follow up meetings: What Do You Mean They Don't Have a Traffic Department? and Maybe We Should Create a System For Keeping Track of Active Projects. Naturally, this led to sidebar discussions: Isn't There a Form For That? and How Are We Going To Get This All Done Before Colleen Leaves?

My little brain hurts.