Page 167 - Just Deserts

Scrubbers

Unfortunately, the clerk monitoring the transfer no longer worked
for 3F and could not be located for questioning.”
“3F’s troubles, however, paled in comparison to Cocker and
Philpott’s. The press had a field day. Again, nobody at the soap and
toothpaste company realized that ‘scrubber’ is also the name of the
smokestack pollution control device which they had not installed in
order to protect profits. The public, with its deeply-ingrained fear of
contamination, totally rejected the wonderful washcloth. And the
‘clean up’ slogan also came back to haunt Cocker and Philpott. It
soon became a staple of stand-up comedians and talk-show hosts
that the company had tried to ‘clean up’ financially by getting its
customers to ‘clean up’ their bodies with a chemical they were
supposed to ‘clean up’ from their factory.”
The unlikely coincidence of catastrophic conditions led Cocker
and Philpott to suspect they had been set up by their advertising
agency, Bodkin/Thomler. Once again, the finger-pointing began—
but it reached a dead end at the agency. The account executive who
conceived the entire marketing strategy had to resign in order to save
his company’s credibility; he, in turn, protested that all his ideas came
from an employee no longer with the firm, a mentally deficient clerk
in the mail room. Nobody believed him.”

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