Copygirl

 

Shirley J.                               Adult Fiction                     Marketing,  Writing Ads, Glass Ceiling    

Copygirl by Anna Mitchael and Michelle Sassa   320 pages        

Copygirl is the story of females working in an ad agency where their worth is seen as somewhat less than their male coworkers.   The males in the agency tend to hang together and go out drinking with some of the bosses/owners of the company so therefore have a better rapport with the company power players.  One of the females at the firm, Peyton, is a notorious flirt and joiner and always makes it her business to go with the office mates after hours at their local hangout, "The Hole."  She is always seen posting on social media where the staff are, them doing shots, playing drinking games, pranking each other,  and what they are up to, often coming across slutty to the other females in the office.  Her sucking up to the guys has more behind it than just after work stress relief.     When Peyton is seen sitting on the lap of Ben who Kay Carlson has her eye on hatred flies and tempers in the office become taught.   Because Kay is not a joiner and seldom drops by "the Hole" with the "boys,"  bully boss, Elliott, gives her the account no one else wants.   Kay takes the assignment seriously and does her best to capture the clients' favor in spite of all the vitriol she gets from the others.   Turns out she does a great job,   now the company is vying against other ad agencies for a make or break account that would make them millions and establish them as the agency to beat.  On the other hand, losing the KOLA account would mean the agency would suffer significantly and likely have to downsize or even close.   To deal with all the stress she is under, Kay picks an old hobby back up, making wax dolls, and with today's technology she starts making video shorts of the dolls acting out various scenes in her own life at work she sends the videos to her best friend who has moved to France.   The laughs they share help Kay to destress but Kay's friend thinks the videos Kay is doing with the dolls is so funny she starts sharing them with her own friends list and before long the videos are all over Europe and Asia heading to the U.S.  People love them and they go viral.  She finally shares this with Kay who is surprised at first but then thinks how fun it is and she continues to work hard then take her dolls on location to shoot new videos.   The story develops and takes a few twists with Kay's life being fodder for her films.   It gets cutthroat at the agency with people divided into teams trying to out do the competition, and each other, to capture the KOLA account.   A good look into the creative process in marketing products and what goes on behind the scenes in corporate ad agencies.   Fun book, I would recommend this one to high schoolers on up, maybe mature middle schoolers, it is a good look into future employment ideas.