my brothers, Rupert, Simon, Judd, Dan, Gage, my father and me. On the opposite side of the table from us were three executives from Murdock: the tour coordinator, Bob; the marketing director, Marcia; and the president and company namesake, Dick Murdock, a barrel-chested man who wore ostrich-skin boots and a Bolle tie.
Our conference room had a table large enough to seat sixteen and the walls were decorated with the scores of awards we’d won, nearly all of them bearing my father’s name. We dimmed the lights, and on a pull-down screen we projected our proposed slogan.
Dick Murdock Travel
We’ll get you there
Murdock’s silence screamed. Finally, Marcia, a tall, thin woman with spiky black hair, said, “I don’t get it.”
Simon raised the lights. “We’ll get you there,” he said, taking on the tone of a radio announcer. “It’s a powerful phrase. Travel is a matter of trust. Your clients want to know that their families, their employees and they, themselves, are in good hands. No matter where they’re going, Dick Murdock Travel will get them there, safely, on time, on budget.”
His explanation was met with more silence. I glanced over at my father. He sat expressionless. This was a man who could maneuver a jet while surface-to-air missiles were shot at him—a crash-and-burn pitch was nothing.
“Where are you getting the ‘safely, on time, on budget’ part?” Bob asked.
Simon squirmed a little. “It’s implied.”
Bob nodded slowly, the way people do when they have no idea what you’re talking about but really don’t care to hear an explanation.
Rupert stepped in. “Let’s face it, for the business person, travel is exhausting, a necessary evil, a means to an end. Our end is getting them there so they can do what they really went to do.”
Crickets.
Murdock glanced at his two employees, then sat up in his seat. “There’s no zing,” he said bluntly.
After a moment Rupert said, “That’s just our first concept.” He nodded to Judd.
Judd stood. “Like Rupert said, travel is a necessary evil, getting from A to B. So I created a play on that principle.”
Dick Murdock Travel
From A to Z
More crickets.
Judd continued, “From Arizona to Zimbabwe, from Alaskan Cruises to the San Diego Zoo, from the Amazon to Zambia.”
“Where’s Zambia?” Bob asked Marcia facetiously.
Murdock said nothing. Worse. He looked annoyed.
“Too much like the amazon.com logo,” Marcia said. “From A to Z. It’s been done.”
Judd looked blindsided. “We’ve created a television spot,” he said meekly.
“Don’t bother,” Murdock said. “I’m not sure we’re broadcasting on the same frequency.” He turned to Rupert. “Unlike you, we don’t think of our business as a ‘necessary evil.’ From what I’ve heard so far, you’d think we were torturing our clients for a price.”
“That’s certainly not the message we intended to convey,” Simon said.
“Intent is irrelevant, it’s what’s perceived that matters. And that’s what I heard,” Murdock said. “Travel is evil.” He turned to my dad. “Is that the best you’ve got?”
I could only imagine what was going through my father’s mind. Mayday, Mayday, we’re going down. Pulling the eject cord. My dad looked at Simon, who looked more angry than dejected. Then he turned to Rupert. “Is that our best?”
Rupert glanced at my father, then said, “Actually, we have one more concept we want to show you. It’s a bit unconventional.”
“Unconventional?” Murdock said.
For Rupert, “unconventional” was a polite way of saying “out there.” Three days earlier I had had a dream of a suitcase bouncing around with excitement. The words came to me, Pack your bags!
Rupert turned to me. “J.J., show Mr. Murdock your idea.”
Truthfully, I hadn’t planned on sharing my idea. When I had shared my dream with Simon, he gave me that “nice try, kid, now get me some coffee” look. Every eye in the room fell on me. I lifted my portfolio and walked to the front of the conference room. I cleared my throat.
“I’m kind of new at this, so bear with me.”
“Nowhere to go but up,” Murdock said.
Simon’s jaw tightened.
“When I think of travel, I think of having fun—seeing exciting places, seeing people I care about. I think of the excitement and anticipation of getting ready. When I went to Italy a few months ago, I spent six months preparing for just ten days. So, to me, travel is more than just the time away from home, it’s the anticipation leading up to it . . . like Christmas. The fun of Christmas is the preparation, the secrets and wrapping and decorating. So I came up with this.”
Dick Murdock Travel
Pack Your Bags!
The slogan