Ah the 80s. When suburban office buildings sprouted like mushrooms and developers through lavish broker receptions in the hopes that the brokers would remember them when they had a customer. It was said that at the peak a salesperson could eat three squares a day just going from reception to reception. And the giveaways: Note pads, cups, toys and a variety of useless objects that were large enough to fit the building and developer's name.
I think the most ridiculous and absurd promotion I saw at the time was the day I got to the office and on my desk was a rectangular box. The weight of it surprised me. Inside the box was a brick. Yes a brick. With a pink ribbon around it. Gee, now what I'm I suppose to do with a brick?
I noticed that the brick had been sent by the developer via US Mail. Then I looked up and saw that there were rectangular boxes on every desk. Now, you have to appreciate, we had close to fifty salespeople in this office and all had received a brick. I can only assume that bricks were sent to all of the regional commercial real estate companies. The number of salespeople receiving bricks had to be in the hundreds.
You know, I never remembered the name of the developer or the building that these extra bricks came from. I only imagined what it must of been like for those unfortunate mail carriers with commercial real estate companies on their routes that day.
