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By Root 406 0

is dead. He has his head between his hands because part of the big mystique in his talking to the Widget people was, ‘Well, we want you to be our first account and we expect it to make a big splash.’ If ANNY prints a story which says that Jim So-and-So, one of the partners of the new agency, said there is no news to report at this time concerning the Widget account, the issue is dead. It’s now a dead story as far as the business trade is concerned. With a dead story, the Widget people just lost the one big reason why they want to go to the new agency. Everyone had been saying to each other, ‘Well, we would be their first account and we would get the full treatment, the whole splash, like, “They opened today and they opened with this particular account.”’ With the news out it’s not going to happen that way. What may happen is that the Widget people will say, ‘Gee, this new agency must have blabbed it around about our leaving the Doakes people. What do we need with a bunch of bigmouths?’

The clients all read the trade papers, but very few of them realize the infighting that is going on all the time. All they know is whenever their name is mentioned in the wrong way they get upset. They don’t know of the blood being shed behind the lines. I saw a story recently about an agency–and the agency was named–saying that they were doing some work for Carter-Wallace, Inc. The story said that the project ‘is under wraps. No details available.’ I don’t know anything more about this story but I do know that somebody just got zapped out. An executive at Carter-Wallace must have seen the story and then called the agency which was doing the project— ‘We thought that this was very confidential, and if it’s not confidential why didn’t you tell us that you couldn’t keep a secret?’ Somebody bombed the agency. Who knows why?

There are some agencies that just are not aware of what’s going on. Day in, day out, these agencies constantly take it on the chin. Some agencies’ guys are nice, sweet, warm guys who want to go home to Rye at night and they don’t want to know from rumors. They no more know how to handle rumors than the man in the moon.

Very few people go around telling out-and-out lies in the rumor game – this is where you tend to draw the line. But if there’s a piece of news, some guys use it to their best advantage. That’s all it really is. People also draw the line at taking unfair advantage of a guy. They would not call up a trade paper and say outright that somebody’s about to lose an account. They don’t call up a paper and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got a tip for you, baby.’ Like that’s bad news. They let the press call them. I once got a phone call from one of the trade papers:

‘What do you hear?’

‘I haven’t heard anything.’

‘Well, let me see if I can refresh your memory. I hear you’re pitching National Airlines?’

‘National? They’re at Papert, Koenig, Lois. There’s always talk about National Airlines. But I’m not doing anything.’

‘Well, we hear they’re really talking to somebody.’

I say, ‘Is your source a good source?’

‘My source is a pretty good source.’

I say, ‘Fine. Why don’t you call up PKL? They’re going to deny it. Why don’t you call up National? They’ll admit it because National always admits these things. They always say, “We talk to agencies all the time.”’

During that call I really knew nothing about National and PKL so I really couldn’t help the guy from the trade paper. If I was pitching National I would have told him. But I don’t think anyone with class ever picks up the phone to say, ‘Hey, did you hear that …?’ I think that’s tipping, and it’s wrong.

People use rumors to zap out other people. An example of this terrible practice is the case of Mary Wells. According to The Gallagher Report, Mary Wells used to have only a thirty-day contract with her own agency. But people began to use this report against her and it was affecting her new business. How did the word that she had only a short contract ever get out? Who knows? But I’ll bet she didn’t run around town screaming it. Somebody leaked it from Wells, Rich & Greene