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.)
