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Neal says, “Let’s go back to the brief. It says, ‘The Only Phone is unique to you. It knows you. It learns where you go, what you do, and it takes care of you.’ That needs to be wrapped up in simple, bite-size messages.”
Olivier’s mouth wrinkles. “The phone learns about you? Won’t users’ data get poached or hacked?”
Neal narrows his eyes at the brief. “According to this, everything stays on the phone.”
“You believe any of that?”
Neal smiles as his head shakes. “Not a single fucking word. But I know my job, and my job is to sell it.”
“We should have had more notice of this phone thing. This is what they’re having the huge thing upstairs for?”
“‘Event,’ Olivier. The ‘Event.’ You can’t say ‘Thing.’ Not here.”
“You’re right, Neal. Here at The Main Event, the Event is everything.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Marina, our dear leader…” Olivier rubs his chin. “Does she say it enough times?”
“Seriously.”
“And, have you seen the Top Rooms? Swanky. Even for one of her extravaganzas. This is going to be some big deal.”
Neal says, “So swanky it’s wanky.”
“Let her hear that and you’ll be looking for a job.”
All of the mess is in a wide circle, right around the two men in the middle of the room. They scribble with markers and cut up pieces of paper and cardstock, glue things together. Whatever they draw, write or make, they immediately screw it up and hurl it as far as they can.
I try to clean, they make a mess. Rinse and repeat.
They’re noisy and explosive. They make me flustered and uncomfortable, but I have a sense of sympathy, a feeling that they’re under pressure. I have a hunch they feel too much is being expected of them.
Neal says, “Olivier, what do you think of ‘The phone to phone home and away when you need more fun in your day’?”
“Yeah. Not much.” Olivier rubs his chin. “Here it is: The one and only Only Phone.”
“The only phone that’s there just for you is the Only Phone.”
“Why do they even want to call it, ‘the Only Phone’? It doesn’t make sense.”
“If it were the only phone, there would be no other phones to call with it.”
“Exactly. What would be the point of that?”
Olivier says, “They should call it the Extra Phone.”
“The Über phone. Oh, no, wait…”
“The Mega Phone.” Olivier smiles like a Cheshire cat.
“Ooh… the Megüberphone!”
“No, wait…”
“No, that’s it. You’re right, Oli, it’s the Mega Phone.”
“That’s what I said.”
