And next to the lift hung one of the paintings Charles had acquired. In full view of every member of staff and every client.

Abstract. Spotches of paint. Bits of bare canvas. No frame, just the canvas tacked to the stretchers.

A masterpiece?

After an evening on the red infuriator down the Intrepid Fox, I lurched back to the agency.

Took down the picture with great care, and then hung it back on the wall.

Upside down.

And it stayed like that for the next two years. Still in full view of all the agency staff and all the clients.

Which goes to show that whether or not you’ve got talent, if no-one notices, it’s all academic.

Oooh Jack. Kitchens.

I was working at an agency in Russia.
The staff were an explosive cocktail of expats:
The Russians hated the Germans with venom.
The Germans hated the Brits because they got on the Russians.
The Brits just took the money and went down the pub.

One day a German girl complained about the sink.
So the German MD bought a dishwasher.
The sink was still loaded with plates every day.
It infuriated the German girl so much she put a sign up.

Nothing changed.

One day she threw a spoon in the plate-filled basin with fury:
\Why don’t these stupid Russians use the dishwasher!!!
Can’t they see the sign I’ve written over the sink???\

The truth was, she couldn’t see the sign that was writtten over
every Russian’s face in the office saying \Go home.\

They didn’t like her, but I couldn’t tell her that, so
I just said; \You know, maybe they find the sign a bit
of an insult because it’s written in German and English.
Perhaps if you wrote it in Russian you would get a better response.

The logic overloaded her brain.
She wanted to kill me but she couldn’t because she knew for once
I was right.

This isn’t mischievous but thought you’d like it.

I’m in an Agency over in Hammersmith at the moment.
The kitchen here is quite small and gets messy pretty quickly.
After about 11 O’clock all of the teaspoons are dirty and piled up in the sink.
So when you go to make a tea or a coffee there aren’t any spoons to do the job.
The office manager has tried various tactics to solve the problem.

The first one felt a bit like a brand ad, it was a poster put up in the kitchen that said ‘Please keep the kitchen tidy, it’s for everyone’

11 O’clock the next day, the spoons were still dirty and in the sink.

Next he tried a viral approach and sent an e-mail asking everyone to pledge to keep the kitchen tidy. People signed up to it.

11 O’clock the next day, the spoons were still dirty and in the sink.

About a week ago he traced around a teaspoon, drew a face on it and wrote next to it. “Hi, I’m a teaspoon. I’m tired of you chucking my brothers and me into the sink everyday. Why don’t you wash me up and put me straight back. Simple.”

This was laminated and stuck on the counter next to the kettle.
The real spoon was then placed on top of the out lined spoon.

I think it’s a good idea. The planning’s good, (it’s not about the kitchen, it’s about the spoons). The media is perfect (next to the kettle) and the tone is fun (no one likes being told off).

Best of all, this little piece of laminated paper has changed the behaviour of the whole agency.

Since it was put there, every time you go to make a cuppa there’s always a clean teaspoon right next to the kettle.