Quality Control

Carly wasn’t stupid, despite what her co-workers all seemed to believe. She knew exactly what she was there for, why they’d hired her, and it was not, as one of her co-workers, Jack, had told her once, that she was a diversity hire, or, as another one, Melissa, had said, “It’s silly for us to make toys and not have the input from someone in one of our core demographics!”

She was there for meetings just like this one, where she sat in her special booster chair around the meeting table and listened to everyone else doing their best to not give any specifics as they talked about their newest product. “So, Carly,” one of them asked finally. “What do you think?”

“It looks cute to me,” she shrugged. “I mean, it’s pink, it’s fluffy, it smells good, it comes in a gift set with some chocolate… Sounds like a perfect Valentine’s Day present.”

Her co-workers smiled triumphantly, complimenting one another, faces filled with pride. She decided not to mention that she’d consulted on it, helped pick the design, so she deserved some of the credit, too. She doubted anyone who had come to her for advice was going to stick up for her, either… They had never seem like official visits, one of them just stopping by, seeing what she thought of a picture of the newest prototype, her telling them to use a different fur, or make the ears a bit smaller.

It would have been easy to stop them there, to ‘help’ them make it worse, so nobody would want it… If she did that, however, then their intended audience would never buy it, and if it was bought for them, they’d probably return it without using it, and everyone would stop listening to her, and she wouldn’t have a job. It was better, she thought, to actually help, to make them trust her, and one day she’d be able to betray them, to take them down a peg…

Somehow. She hadn’t quite figured that part out yet, and the longer she stayed here, the more comfortable she was, the more raises she got, the less certain she was of when she’d ever move on to the second phase of her plan.

This would have been a good time… From what she’d gleaned, this was a particularly sneaky little product, one that could do a lot of damage… But there were always other ones that could be worse, that could have a bigger impact if she waited, and she was saving up for a new car…

“And what about advertising?” another inquired. “Our studies say these programs would be the most effective to reach… your audience,” they flipped to a new slide, split into two groups of television shows, “and these would be the least. Do you agree?”

This was the big one, the place where she could make the largest dent in their profits… They could design the perfect, most devious, toys, but if the wrong people saw the wrong commercials, it would wreck everything. There would be at least two of them, one telling littles all about how great the teddy bear was, how it could be their new best friend, and another for Amazons, informing them of its real purpose.

The latter would circulate online eventually, once a little – or a ‘tweener or Amazon sympathetic to them – spotted it, recorded it, posted it with a warning. By then, especially with a limited, seasonal release like this, most of the damage would be done, and there would be enough posters ready to call it a hoax to sow doubt. If the speculation did gain traction, the company would pull the spots early, or switch them out with the little-targeted ones, so anyone trying to find the others to prove they existed would be foiled.

She shouldn’t help them… She should tell them they had their research flipped, saturate the airwaves with the wrong commercial so everyone saw the real thing, and there was no way they were fooled, if they got it as a Valentine’s gift… But she did really want to get that new car.

“I’m not sure about the baking show,” she pointed at the Amazon side of the slide. “I’ve been hearing more of my friends talking about watching it.”

Did she feel a bit guilty, seeing her co-workers nod, take notes? Of course… That wasn’t going to stop her now, however. Maybe somewhere down the road, for their Christmastime campaign, or next Valentine’s… That would work out better for her…