Part 9
That night, Tim and his employees -- in the quiet of their own homes -- lay awake, thinking about the commercials that they'd shot, and wondering what the rough cut would look like, and how they'd be received by the focus group.
Each of the women had pretty similar thoughts: a mixture of satisfaction, arousal and worry. They were all glad to have been chosen, and to be an object of desire, even if in a playful, lighthearted way. Their young boss had been their immediate audience, a stand-in for the many men who would be watching their commercials, if things went well.
Tim's reactions had pleased them, for the most part. As annoying as he could occasionally be -- only Anna was really bothered by his antics, and then only part of the time -- his comically lustful attention and innuendoes were ultimately welcome. He affirmed their attractiveness and desirability.
And what might have otherwise been grating -- his having the upper hand over them, as they competed to expose themselves to gain his attention in their pantomimes -- was tempered by what they knew, and he didn't. They had all seen him embarrassed, and even naked -- and in real life! So while he was able to savor his power position in the advertising campaign, they felt like the power dynamic was not so lopsided as their handsome boss believed.
For his part, Tim was blissfully unaware of how much Anna, Kaitlyn and Julie had seen of him. It was still mortifying to think that Shawna and Mia had witnessed his humiliating stripping at the bar, but even though he wasn't fully aware of it, this ad campaign was restoring his confidence in his position. When he thought about both ads, and the way his employees had exposed themselves to him, he was both hard and happy.
Even though it was acting, he felt like it was somehow more than that. He remembered that when he'd been maneuvered into his forced walk around the office in his skin-tight bicycle shorts, he had not just been embarrassed, but undeniably turned on, too. And he intuited that his attractive employees -- even Anna -- felt similar emotions. Even as they momentarily resented their boss for his chance to bask in their choreographed embarrassment, they also got some pleasure from the experience.
He knew that he might have been teasing the girls too much about their exposure in the ads, but he also knew that it was a way to re-claim the confidence and the control that should come with being the boss. As he nodded off, he was anticipating the next day's focus group; he fell asleep with a smile on his face.
The focus group watched the rough cuts of the two ads in a room constructed for that purpose, at the headquarters of the ad company, where Shawna worked. A large, rectangular room was set up with a conference table that could seat 12 in the middle of it. At the front of the room was a large video screen, and at the rear was a large mirror that was actually one-way glass. Behind that mirror were two rows of 6 seats each. The staff from the advertising company sat in that observation room, watching the focus group as the focus group watched the ads.
Tim and his employees, plus Danielle, Kurt and the video team -- Joy, Pam and Becky -- were in the observation room as the focus group filed into the main room. Shawna welcomed them to the room, as they took their seats around the conference table. Each of them had bottled water, a notepad and a hand-held device that Shawna called a response meter; she explained that as they watched each ad, they would first use the meter to give a quick overview: turn the meter up toward 10 when you liked what you were seeing, and down toward 1 when you didn't.
She also explained that after the first run-through of each ad, each observer would take some notes on their thoughts about that ad. Then the ad would run two more times, during which they'd add to their notes, and answer canned questions that Shawna would feed them.
The focus group was a young, good-looking bunch. There were 6 guys and 2 girls, all looking to be college-aged. As Shawna was explaining what they'd be doing, Danielle told the group in the soundproof observation room what they'd be looking for.
"This group has been chosen to fit our target demographic. We know that some females might buy our product, but the primary buyers will be males, so we skewed our focus group in that direction. They are all in our target ad group, and they roughly fit the economic strata of our intended consumers."
For the next several hours, Tim and his staff watched as Shawna put the focus group through their paces. During the initial showing of each ad, Tim and his employees mostly focused on the ad itself, and how they came across in it. They had not known what to expect from what the ad people had called a "rough cut," but they were pleasantly surprised.
Joy and her team were good. They had cut the ads together skillfully, so that the disjointed, individual shots that the actors had participated in now formed a coherently flowing mini-drama. The only really rough aspect involved sound. Joy hadn't put in musical cues or a smooth sound track yet; when asked about that, she explained that the goal of the initial focus group was to get first and broad impressions. The audio tracks would make a big difference in the final production, but it involved a lot of polishing time, and that investment wouldn't be made until the ad team was confident that the ad was going to work.
During the morning, Shawna ran and re-ran the tv versions of both ads. The focus group used their meters and took notes and chatted, with each other and with Shawna. Everybody laughed at the right places -- when one of Tim's employees had a sneaky thought that she put into action, or when Tim reacted to his employees' unexpected exposure.
As Tim watched the ad company representatives' reactions, he became more and more confident. Danielle and Kurt seemed pleased with what they saw, and Joy's team winked and nodded at each other as the focus group reacted to each reveal.
Tim saw that his pretty employees were responded equally well, with smiles and even some laughter of their own. They did some blushing here and there too, and teased each other when one of them was exposed on screen.
The most blushing came when the male members of the focus group commented on how hot the employees were, and how lucky their boss was.
When Mia was up on the ladder in the first ad, for example, one of the guys said, "Wow, why didn't her boss climb right up behind her?"
Another guy said, "I know, right? He shouldn't risk her falling on her cute little butt!"
"Not when he could grab hold of it, just to be safe," said the first, laughing.
Mia blushed at that, and Julie punched her lightly in the shoulder, grinning.
The boys in the focus group made joking comments about all four of the office girls' bodies, dress, and amount of exposure. The girls in the group laughed and commented too, but also made a few comments about how females are always the ones to be exposed in ads, and that wasn't fair.
After running through the tv versions of both ads multiple times, and gathering notes and comments from the focus group, everyone broke for lunch.
Part 10
After lunch, when everyone was settled back into their places -- the focus group in the video room, and Tim's team and clients in the observation room -- Shawna got to the part that her audience behind the one-way glass had been waiting for. She explained to the focus group that in addition to the tv ads that they'd watched in the morning, there would also be slightly more explicit versions of both ads to be shown on the internet.
Tim and the watchers sensed the change in the focus group -- everybody sat up a little straighter, and traded questioning looks.
One of the guys said, "When you say 'more explicit' version, do you mean nudity?"
Shawna glanced quickly toward the mirrored wall in back. "The actresses will show a little more skin, and there will be brief flashes of nudity."
"Yes!" the guy said, and several others fist-bumped each other.
"Any chance that their hunky boss will be showing any skin?" one of the two girls asked.
