Apparently a long term colleague in our office, some doubt that he was ever real– or if he did then he clearly wasn’t coming into work quite as often as he should have been – and that he came into existence due to an administrative cock up at a planner’s office that listed him as the consultant in charge of a project. The truth is we may never know.
What is clear is that he touched the lives of a number of sales executives in the North West of England, all of whom have tried to contact him over the last few weeks having bought this piece of erroneous information from an unscrupulous marketing company, and all of whom have tried to get him to specify their products on future projects. Somewhere along the way my belligerent attitude towards sales calls may have lead me to starting a rumour that this non-existent man had recently passed away as a means of increasing the discomfort of the sales representative on the other end of the phone. Like all jokes in poor taste it seems to have taken on a life of its own.
So, we raise a glass to John Tunnicliffe who this morning gave us our first ever letter of condolence / sales pitch we have received in the office from someone who we have not previously spoken to about his recent (fictional) passing indicating that his recent passing has been noted amongst marketing companies.
There’s now a temptation to see just how far we can push the joke before it breaks.
Midland Film Monkey 