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TRUE STORY
Retrospect has been
playing at bridal fairs for twenty-five years, over 100 shows in all, as part of our
advertising strategy. The promoters of every single show, except one, have been
asked by an agency or group of agencies, to keep Retrospect out of their shows.
Of course, it never works. Why do they try?
They claim our business practices are "unfair" because we won't work
with agents. And we're unfair because we publish our prices, too. Ooh, radical
stuff,
huh? Why don't they call the Washington Post?
A few weeks before
one suburban shopping mall bridal show, an organized group of four Maryland-based
agencies
called the mall's Promotions Director (all on the same day) and threatened to pull
their exhibits out of the show unless Retrospect was kept out.
The Promotions
Director told them "No way," so three of them pulled out of the show. But the
agency owner who was the gang leader stayed
in the show.
Not stupid, he had tricked most of his competitors into pulling out of the show. This may have
been his original goal anyway, to clear out the crowded field of agency
competition. Retrospect was just a pawn in his clever game -- a game
designed to screw us, the other agencies, the mall, everybody but himself!
[Editor's note to Pat and Chuck -- can you honestly say that you didn't realize that's what your
"good friend" was doing to you? Shame on you both.]
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