Minerva inspected a pair of sketches showing what Mr. Ballard had in mind. She shook her head as she handed them back.
"I'm not sure, Mr. Ballard. I'm not opposed to your product, but I don't think it's best to use an annie skunk to endorse a line of perfume. It gives the impression that we have the same, shall we say, social problem, as a real skunk."
"It makes for good ad." Mr. Ballard insisted.
"Maybe so, but I think you'd do better with an actual cartoon, a drawing of a more animal-type skunk. I wouldn't want to give my fans the impression that I have an odor like that. I know what you're thinking, but I have my reasons. People sometimes don't take for granted that annies are just like them. They see the animal features and let those inform them on what annies must be like. Don't take it personally, though. I once turned down a deal from Palmolive for the same reasons."
"Maybe you have a point," Ballard looked over the sketches, "but a celebrity endorsement is what my company really needs right now."
"If you're not set on using me," Minerva looked around the studio commissary, "I'm sure you can make an arrangement with one of the other stars. It would only carry a negative tone if I were the one selling the product. What about Daisy Poise? Or Trudy Kitten, or Wendy Marco? I'd be happy to help arrange it."
"It would mean a completely different campaign, a far more generic one, but I wouldn't turn down your help if I can still get a star's face in my ads."
"Trudy might be a good choice. She likes her perfumes and has that up-scale glamorous style that would make a good print ad."
"Yes," Ballard eyed Trudy as she sat across the room and picked at her lunch, "she certainly has a good look. Soft and feminine, but with a sort of high society poise. I must be guilty of the type of thinking you mean. I just wrote that off to her being a cat. That balance of cuddly and sophisticated."
"It's all about impressions. Take real cats. They're attributed a sense of pride and poise for the way they move. But if you really look at them, cats are fairly clumsy, and not very bright. That detached manner in which they interact with their owners gives them a sense of sophistication that they don't really possess." Ballard smiled as he looked back to Minerva.
"You're a dog person, aren't you?"
"For good reason, I'd say. Dogs are intelligent, at least smarter than other pets. And they're the only dumb animal that seems to know shame. When a dog does something wrong, they try to hide it. And they can be taught a number of things. Cats... They lack the learning abilities of a canine, certainly."
"Well, I'll grant you we tend to go by our impressions rather than the reality, particularly when we meet new people. I never stopped to think Trudy Kitten's grace on her feet might have more to do with her personally than with her being a cat. Or, looking like a cat, I guess I should say."
"You didn't really think I was a skunk before you met me," Minnie smiled knowingly as she looked at him through narrowed eyes, "did you?"
"No, certainly not. But I guess I did have an impression that you had more skunk-like traits. Not the odor, I mean, but I guess I did expect something a little different about you. I never really thought about it."
"That's more or less why I think you should use another girl in your ads. I don't think people naturally expect someone like me to stink, but it might push some people's impressions in that direction. Imagine some girl in school who has a tail like mine. If I advanced the idea that she had something to cover up, that she only smells as good as she does because she uses your perfume, it might open the door to her being teased for no reason."
"Yeah..." Ballard mulled it over, "I suppose you might have something there. I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that."
"I know. Like I said, the ad would work fine with a real cartoon skunk. But, if you really need a celebrity in your ads, I'm sure we can find an actress willing to take the job. Daisy Poise once did a Revlon campaign."
"She's got a good look, certainly." Ballard looked back toward Trudy. "So does Miss Kitten. The more I mull it over, the better I think she'd fit the bill."
"C'mon," Minerva stood, "I'll introduce you."
About a month later, Trudy Kitten began appearing in ads for Ballard Cosmetics. They were lovely ads, with Trudy seen lounging on pink satin bedding, looking at the viewer with a coy smile. Minerva nodded approvingly as she scanned the ad printed in her favorite magazine. She was again seated in the studio commissary next to Mr. Ballard.
"I want to thank you, Minerva. We've had our biggest sales boost in years thanks to Trudy doing this campaign."
"I'm glad I could help. I think it's been a boost for Trudy as much as it has been for you. She's got three new pictures lined up as result of the Boss seeing this ad."
"An ad block has that much power? I mean, you always hope they do when you invest in one, but I didn't think that kind of influence was possible."
"It was a matter of inspiration. Fresh ideas for the next Trudy Kitten cartoon were coming up short. Then the Boss saw your ad and ideas came flooding forth."
"From such a generic image? I was convinced we'd dropped the ball on this, until the new sales numbers began coming in."
"A generic image is open to more interpretations sometimes. It doesn't take much to trigger a good idea for someone with a knack for this business. Wendy Marco became my co-star because the Boss saw one of my publicity stills side by side with the photo of Wendy printed in the local high school paper."
"I wouldn't have thought Creek Bend would have a school large enough to have a school paper."
"The school itself is over in Ludley. Students are from there, Creek Bend, and parts of Amsterville. Put them all together and you've got a decent sized student body."
"That's a market I've been wishing I could crack."
"Students?"
"Girls wear perfume from an early age, but it's most important to the young lady just discovering boys. That's the prime market for cosmetics."
"Do you not make as many teenage sales as you'd like?"
"Oddly, no. Our chief demographic seems to be housewives. Women who've already landed their man. Our previous ad campaign was built around the idea of using our products to keep those men at home at night."
"Well, I can see that. Your perfume line does seem targeted toward passions and romance of a level beyond the kids you're talking about. You may want to try something a little more cutsie if young girls are your target."
"My impression has always been that girls think along the same terms, no matter their age."
"To an extent. But you said yourself, the current motto of Ballard Cosmetics seems to be 'Keep Your Man' when 'Get Your Man' is more what you want if younger girls are your key demographic. And at that age, a girl doesn't like to appear too forward. What you need to do is take notes from your target audience. They set out to snag their man alright, but with as much subtlety as possible. To get a relationship off right at that age, a girl knows she has to make the boy think it's really his own idea."
"Interesting..." Ballard hunched forward and stroked his chin as he processed this perspective, "I've always favored the direct approach and that's what I've been playing to in my ads. No wonder our products are most popular with married women. They know from living with men that the best approach with a man is the direct approach. But a teenager... directness is completely alien to them! How could I have not seen it for so long?"
"Don't you discuss business with your wife?"
"You know, we've discussed every product, but commercials she's never had much to say about." Ballard was largely lost in thought as he scooped up his hat from the table and waved to Minerva before marching for the door. Minerva watched him go, wondering how something so obvious regarding romantic relationships had so escaped a perfume manufacturer for so long.
The ad campaign that resulted from the conversation was a cute one. Teenage girls were depicted something like Army commandos, donning their war paint lipsticks and perfumes while eyeing a boy from around a corner, waiting for the perfect moment to leap out and take down their target, as it were. Ballard also dabbled in a new medium. Previously, he'd been content to stick with print ads, but now he was filming commercials for television. For help in this he again turned to Minerva for advice and suggestions of the best studio personnel to help him. The first commercial was adorable, showing a pretty young girl following from a distance a handsome young man. She sized up her prey, selected the right scent, and slid up next to him. All the while, the ad was scored as if it were a military operation. The spot ended with the pair eating at a fine restaurant and the legend "Mission Accomplished" floating over the scene as the camera panned over to the product itself.
It worked. Ballard Cosmetics was soon the West Coast's biggest supplier of cosmetics to teenagers. This campaign proved such a hit that Ballard was able to open two new factories and take his product national. Mr. Ballard knew how much he owed Minerva, who was recipient of gift packages of perfume periodically. As Ballard's industry grew, so did the gifts Minerva would find shipped to her door at the start of every month. Diamonds, minks, and eventually Cadillac cars arrived at her home. Minerva was overwhelmed. Never, she had to figure, has a man given so much to a girl for so little! The inventory became so voluminous that Minerva had to start giving the bulk of it away as gifts.
That's why, if you ever visit Creek Bend and tour the studio, you can smell such a sweet aroma wafting around you. It's the same way if you happen to pass by the campus of Ludley High... Where every girl has her boy and the staff all have Cadillacs....
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