A new order for a brave new world

Some 20 yrs ago, practically a lifetime ago, I was asked to go to my boss then, JayJay Calero, and close the door behind me. Now that’s never a good sign. I immediately began reviewing any transgression I may have committed. Was I late? Did I miss a deadline? Did I bully an AE? Was a client complaining? I was so relieved to learn, I hadn’t been called to the principal’s office for any offense.

Instead I was being drafted into a most secret mission--- To launch toothpaste that competition had been spying about for many years. I was allowed only to work with one art director and the marketing director and later on, one brand manager who was housed in a separate office. No one from Unilever even knew there was a brand manager. We worked at first in the condominium of the MD and later in the “quarantined” brand manager’s office-away-from-the-office. Only JWT’s top management, my partner Gil Corcuera, the art director, and I knew about the pending product launch. 4 people in all were actively into Oplan Pepsodent. It proved to be one of Unilever’s most successful secret guerrilla foray.

Fast forward, 20 + years later--- a variant of a personal care product is about to be launched. Prior to a most security conscious initial briefing, carefully selected, supposedly very limited no. of participants were asked to sign a confidentiality clause—on pain of the equivalent of excommunication.