Papaia and the others leave a conference in a big city they\u2019ve never visited before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As they wait at a traffic light, they hear sirens. A fire engine rushes past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the vehicle speeds by, Papaia notices an advertising banner on its side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He watches it disappear down the road, just long enough to read the advert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
ConfuTel: New 999 MB Plan, as Fast as 999!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The four watch as the fire engine stops to put out a fire right there on the street where they\u2019re standing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curious, they head over to see what\u2019s happening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The firefighters manage to rescue a survivor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Visibly in shock, the survivor is escorted by one of the firefighters towards the ambulance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As he waits on the stretcher to be taken to hospital, a sales representative steps out of the fire engine and persuades him to sign a contract with the phone company being advertised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Papaia shrugs. Then he sees a second fire engine arriving at the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This one also has an advertising banner, but this time it\u2019s for a new brand of barbecue fire starter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Papaia reads the slogan:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith GrillBoom, your barbecue explodes with flavour!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n At the bottom, in tiny print, there\u2019s also a disclaimer:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn case of fire, call 999.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Papaia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the most absurd thing I\u2019ve ever seen! Who\u2019s the genius who put an advert for barbecue fire starter on fire engines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Flashback.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Several weeks earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Headquarters of a well-known advertising agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sales representative from the company that makes the fire starter is meeting with an agent from the advertising agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n So… you were telling me about a marketing campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales Representative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, we were thinking of outdoor advertising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Perfect! Great idea. What about buses, roadside billboards and bus shelters?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales Representative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, absolutely. Why not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And what product are we talking about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales Representative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A new barbecue fire starter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Agent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh. In that case, I\u2019d probably rule out fire engines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sales Representative<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Actually, you know what…?<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Papaia and the others leave a conference in a big city they\u2019ve never visited before. As they wait at a traffic light, they hear sirens. A fire engine rushes past. As the vehicle speeds by, Papaia notices an advertising banner on its side. He watches it disappear down the road, just long enough to read … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gags","category-short-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5897"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5904,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5897\/revisions\/5904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/savedblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}