I was pleasantly surprised (and tickled) today when I received a “BREAKING NEWS” e-mail from the marketing department of an industry distributorship stating its president and CEO would be taking a leave of absence to represent the United States at the upcoming Olympics in China. Some of you may have received the e-mail.
I was so impressed (shocked, maybe) by what I was reading about the CEO’s athletic prowess in the first few paragraphs of the press release that I was compelled to holler across the cubicles to Charles Plyter (Promo Marketing’s managing online editor) to see if he’d gotten the release. After a few minutes or so, he hollered back and told me to keep reading. It turned out that the press release was an April Fool’s Day prank!
You know, as a journalist, I admit my initial thought was: “This is a little in bad taste. You send these kinds of e-mails to your office staff and close business associates, not to the industry’s publications.” But, I soon started to laugh. It was actually quite comical to see one of the industry’s growing distributorship’s poke fun at itself—and to think that I was caught up in the hoopla of the prank! I wrote back and thanked them for sharing the joke.
The Book of Proverbs in the Bible tells us that “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine …” So today, or any day, do welcome a bit of laughter into your space to help cure some of your personal and professional ailments. Here’s something to get you started, courtesy of www.comedy-zone.net:
THE YOUNG BUSINESSMAN
A young businessman had just started his own firm. He rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques. Sitting there, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear the hotshot, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working.
He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally, he hung up and asked the visitor, “Can I help you?”
The man said, “Yeah, I’ve come to activate your phone lines.”
Send in your favorite (clean) joke. We may publish it, along with your name, in an upcoming issue of PM Headlines!
‘Til we chat again …
-Cynthia
