183 Quiz Answer

In the book “The Great Gatsby,” by F Scott Fitzgerald, the advertisement of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg consists of a pair of fading, bespectacled eyes painted on an advertising billboard, a dominant symbol within this novel. 

(Also submitted to Three Word Wednesday and ABC Wednesday: "G" is for Dr. Goodman.)

Here’s this week’s Berownial quiz question.

With this week's prompt in mind - a road into town - I wrote the following scenelet, thinking it might remind you of a well-known novel.  Which novel?

“Well, I don’t know.  I was brought up in the day when doctors didn’t advertise, especially not with billboards.”

“But, Dr. Goodman, yours is a special situation.  As an eye doc what you need...”

“Optometrist.”

“Right.  What you need is immediate brand awareness as well as long-term recall.  You want recognition as a highly qualified professional, and you want to sell eye-glasses too.  And that’s where we at SkillMedia come in.  Billboard advertising has the capability of engaging your target audience like nothing else, in addition to extending the reach and effectiveness of your marketing message.”

“I wasn’t aware that I had a marketing message, but I guess I do.  Just where were you planning to place this sign?”

“You know the saying – the key to success is location, location, location!  Doctor Goodman, your powerful ad will be on the main highway from Long Island into New York City.  You may anticipate getting ‘em going in to work and heading home.”

“Long Island?  I can see that’s a lot of people, a lot of working stiffs.  I’m sorry to be elitist, but I would prefer reaching an upscale audience.”

“Ah, well, I hope you’ll forgive me if I offer a slight correction about Long Island.  You know there on the north shore, around the town of West Egg and other such communities, that’s the gold coast.  The only people there who aren’t millionaires are multi-millionaires, and they all drive into New York too.  Which means they’re all going to be impacted by your sign.”

“And what exactly is going to be on that sign?”

“Our design team at SkillMedia have come up with something brilliantly simple yet powerfully effective.  Try to picture a solitary person – it will be you, by the way – seen in an extreme closeup, filling the entire billboard.  You will of course be wearing eye-glasses and you will be serenely engaging your target audience, staring right at them.”

“H’mm.  I don’t know.  Folks could think I’m awfully pretentious, as though I was pretending to be some sort of holy spirit fearlessly judging mankind, or whatever.”

“Well, that wouldn’t be so bad, assuming it sells eye-glasses.”

(Also submitted to Sunday Scribblings.)