Dang Wolves

One of our Marketers is a guy I call Slim. Slim and I recently worked on a system of upgrades for our newspaper's Classified Ads.

To test the upgrades, Slim put in a fake ad. He told me, "If you see an ad in the paper for puppies that says, 'Call for more info!', with no phone number, you'll know it's me."

Sure enough, the ad ran. The upgrades worked. All was happy.

The fun began the second day the ad ran. It was noticed by one of our company's Ad-Takers, who recognized Slim's name. "Oh," she thought, "Slim put in an ad and forgot to list his number. I'll do him a favor." She looked up his home phone number, and added it to the listing.

Saturday morning, Slim's phone started to ring. "Do you still have any of those Yorkie-Poodles?" Slim was mortified.

A natural salesman, Slim immediately resorted to his old tricks. He lied. "No ma'am, they're all gone. Sorry you missed your chance!"

The first few callers were a repeat of this experience. But around mid-morning there was a caller who didn't just want to know if the fictional puppies were available. She wanted hard details. "Just what exactly *is* a Yorkie / Poodle mix?"

Exasperated, Slim said, "Look, it doesn't really matter because the neighbor's wolves already got them." "What?!? Are you serious?" "Sorry ma'am, I've got to go."

From then on, this was his first response to callers. "Sorry, but the neighbor's wolves already got all my puppies. Have a nice day!"

Dang wolves. :)