The whole world took a sick day. There was no traffic, no one in the parking garage. Three of the four AE�s are �sick� today. I haven�t received a call from anybody today. Not one call, it noon. These are the worst days; it�s so boring. I�ve searched every site on my favorites list TWICE. Nothings changed. So I will write to you all, even though you are all at home, �sick�.
Thursday was the Bay City Television�s Holiday party. It was held in San Diego. That means I have to get to San Diego to enjoy this event. In fact, all the AE�s in the office have to get to San Diego. So we did. Driving to San Diego is not bad. It was a very California day (80�s with endless visibility). That was the highlight of the trip. Diving to San Diego was the highlight.
It�s hard to be close to people who work 150 miles away. Much less, people who work in sales (the fakest and most shallow of all people in business). So as I enter the sales office with the other AE�s, everybody is chummy and such, but I am ignored. Why? Because I am the sales assistant, I can do nothing for them and they know that and show me no respect. Fuck them. Time to eat.
Phil�s Roster of San Diego catered the party. Sadly, Phil over roasted the chicken. Brian would have loved it; it was so dry. Covering it in sauce was an act of futility. So far, the foods a bust, the company is shallow and talking about golf, closing the deal at the Harley dealership, and a desire to bang the chicks in traffic and accounting. Now it�s time for the prizes.
Holiday parties, from my understanding, are about celebrating your employees for a years worth of work. Some companies give bonuses, some give prizes or gifts. BCTV gives gifts. But it doesn�t spend its� own cash, instead they make a trade deal. Cheapness in the making.
So let�s say you are the ad agency for Best Buy or Good Guys. We come to you and say, �We�ll give you $10,000 worth of TV spots on Fox and UPN in San Diego if you give us $8000 in credit to one of your stores. But we can�t grantee where the spots will run, but the combined total value will be $10,000 for $8000.� Well that was last year, and last year we had some decent prizes. 32� HDTV, iPods, TIVO, complete 7.1 home stereos. All that stuff. Well, the station ran a bunch of ads for the Good Guys in the worst and lowest rated programs. So this year, instead of $8000 worth of prizes, we had $1500 worth of prizes. Including OPEN BOX items. The balance of stuff was leftover swag (swag is free stuff that vendors and ad agencies send to promote movies, TV shows, music artist, etc.) including SKIN t-shirts (Skin was cancelled in the fall of 2003), Married by America posters and T-shirts, and other junk like that.
Whatever, I hope your office holiday party is better than mine, it shouldn�t be too hard to top, but if yours falls short, I have to hear about it, so let me know.
