There’s a Problem with Dad
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What is this?” Robert stood waving an opened copy of the Law Society Journal, his face flushed with anger. Melvyn had noticed, in recent weeks, a slight tremor in the old man’s hands as well as a hint of uncertainty in his voice, but he knew better than to mistake those signs of age for frailty.
“Eh, it looks like a copy of the Journal?” Melvyn said calmly. In the past he might have attempted to appease the old man, but he now realised that what Robert wanted was to be allowed to point out Melvyn’s perceived shortcomings in the running of the firm, and thereby demonstrate his enduring grip.
“Yes, I know it’s a copy of the Journal, Melvyn, but what I want to know is why we appear to be in it.”
Melvyn took hold of the offending item. He had not yet seen the latest edition of the magazine, nor the full-page advertisement for TMBL Law that he had placed in it the week before. He had purposely avoided mentioning the marketing campaign of which the advert was a small part because he knew, from long and painful experience, what the reaction would be. “Because I thought we could do with raising our profile following the rebrand?”
“Our profile?”
“Yes, our profile.”
“And why, pray, should our profile need to be raised?”
Melvyn looked again at the ad, bearing the firm’s bold new logo that he had retained a digital creative agency to design six months previously. There were many quality standards against which the old man measured the firm’s successes, but marketing outcomes and brand identity were not among them. For reasons Melvyn did not claim to understand, he considered commercial advertising vulgar and his anger was aroused not only because Melvyn had embarked on such an endeavour, but crucially, that he had done so without his approval.
However, Melvyn knew better than to point this out to the old man who was, after all, the company’s chairman and, more importantly, his father-in-law.
“Jesus God, Melvyn, it was bad enough that you invited that mob of brilliantined spivs in to tell us how to do our job and charge us a bloody fortune into the bargain. Now we’re getting the begging bowl out for customers, and as if that wasn’t humiliating enough...”
About the author
Glasgow-based Carlos
Alba is an award-winning journalist and author. His new novel There’s a Problem with Dad (Ringwood Publishing, £9.99) was inspired by his experience of observing, over several years, a family member with undiagnosed, high functioning