Fred had his own little s.p.a.ce in his own little corner, not too high up in the company building, but not too low. He was given data to look over. Eye tracking for videos of previous ads. Surveys on what people thought about Fizzy Pop and Pop!, their main compet.i.tor. It was a lot of statistics, but Fred was diligent about learning the material. His main supervisor even let him study during work. Training, is what he called it.

People in the office knew that Fred only got the job because of Public Relations. A lot of them despised him. But they all knew that Fred had been favored by the higher ups, so no one dared to bother him. And besides, Fred kept to himself, and said hi and bye to everyone. The workers found themselves responding to his greetings, first in a stiffened manner, and then reflexively. He was slowly beginning to become part of the background, and people got used to his presence. They didn"t think of him as much of an eyesore, after a couple of months.

"We"ll let that girl gamer who"s been trending on that game streaming site to promote Fizzy Pop this time around."

"She"s cute! My son loves that girl." A guy in a blue tie commented, with a sandwich in his mouth.

"She"s been the hot topic for two weeks now, and she mentioned Fizzy Pop a couple of times already. It"s a good idea."

"We"ll write the contract and prepare the check now, I guess."

"I got a suggestion." Fred b.u.t.t in.

The other guys looked over at Fred. They were clearly annoyed.

"What do you suggest, Fred." The team leader eventually said, politely enough.

"The eye tracking data I"ve seen shows that the audience focuses more on the celebrity figure during the ad, rather than our product. Remember the big ad we had with that big time singer? The eye tracking shows that the audience was looking at her face, first, then, her b.o.o.bs. Even the female audience were. Only 10% of watch time was on the can of Fizzy Pop."

"We know that, Fred. It"s about following trends. a.s.sociations. We want our product to be relevant, and game streaming is the new thing."

Fred stayed calm. "It"s only been a few months since my talk show PR stunt. Fizzy Pop had been linked with my story, the beverage for the common man. And woman. I think we should put out an ad with some guy and a girl having a date, drinking Fizzy Pop. It flows better."

"Wow, way to mention the elephant in the room." A guy couldn"t help but snap.

"...Are you trying to say that we can"t ever use celebrities to promote the product?" The team leader inquired.

Fred shook his head. "Of course not, sir. I understand your point about staying relevant, and streaming is the new thing now. But I sort of messed everything up with that angle. I think people want to see some ordinary things right now. h.e.l.l, even the political climate now is all gra.s.sroots and populist."

"...Sigh, we"ll do as you say, Fred."

"Mr. Belluci, with all due respect, Fred"s new here, and yes, he made a point, but would you think about the production cost of filming a whole dating scene? It"s way more cost effective to let some gamer girl promote the product, with some computer effects and end with our usual Fizzy Pop jingle!"

The other guys stayed silent. They wanted to hear what Belluci would say, first.

"No, Fred did mess everything up. It"ll be too sudden to let a celebrity do a promotion. We"ll have the writing team come up with something. With the usual jingle at the end."

"Thank you for the consideration, Mr. Belluci." Fred said.