#128 Hard Sell- T. Coraghessan Boyle
An American PR man is hired by the Ayatollah to clean up his
image. I remember a piece a few months ago I read by Jennifer Egan about a
similar topic called Selling the General. Both kind of played on stereotypes
and were a bit unbelievable, but I think this one was supposed to be a bit
cartoonish. Thus I liked this one a bit better, it didn’t take itself so
seriously.
To start with, this is the description of one of the
Ayatollah’s body men: “…this guy with the face of a thousand fists.”
The problems start with an interpreter that warns the PR
rep, Bob, about his tone. It seems that the interpreter was Harvard educated
and sees right through the BS immediately and is generally offended by the
American crassness. Bob, is the epitome of a loud mouthed, American
had-talking, shit-slinging PR man. He is also completely tone-deaf when it
comes to culture:
“What a joke, huh? They don’t have Tanqueray, Bob. Or rocks
either. They don’t have Beefeater’s or Gordon’s—they don’t have a bar, for
christsake. Can you believe it—the whole damn county, the cradle of
civilization and it’s dry.”
He brings in his own interpreter to make sure what he says
gets in the ear of the Ayatollah, and he believes he is making progress.
However that is not likely, his advice to the Ayatollah is to take off his religious clothes,
wear an Italian suit, shave his beard and remove his religious head garb. Talk about not knowing your audience.
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