Sucked In By Laura Bradford
author of DEATH IN ADVERTISING (A Tobi Tobias Mystery)
I was about five years old when I saw my first Baby Thataway commercial. I had a baby doll of my own, of course, but this particular baby crawled like a real live baby.
When that year’s Sears Wish Book landed in my hot little hands in time to make my list for Santa, Baby Thataway was top on my list. Because I’d been a good girl (or so I’d been told), I was beyond excited to find my own Baby Thataway under the tree.
I picked her up, hugged her, and then set her on the floor so she could crawl just like she did in the commercial. Only when I turned her on, her crawling sounded like a coffee grinder (as my bothersome older brother so gleefully pointed out).
I was crushed.
The baby on the commercial hadn’t sounded like that…
The baby on the commercial crawled just like a real baby…
That was my first lesson in commercial magic and how—with the right musical jingle and catchy combination of words—people can get sucked into the façade.
I wish I could say that one lesson was enough, but it wasn’t. Because here’s the thing…if an ad campaign is done right, it makes you remember that company and, ideally, want whatever product or service they’re selling.
But don’t worry, you’re not alone. Just think about the day after the Super Bowl. Sure, the winning team gets some play in the media, but so, too, does the commercials. They’re talked about around the water cooler, and dissected across social media.
People pay attention to advertising. Plain and simple.
So when it came time to create a new world in which to set a cozy, advertising called to me with all those slogans and campaigns I remembered from my youth. And, thus, my Tobi Tobias Mysteries were born, with DEATH IN ADVERTISING (book # 1) leading the pack.
Sick of the backstabbing at the larger firms, Tobi is trying to make a go of it in the St. Louis market via her own agency. Unfortunately, being a small fish in a rather large pond, the pile of bills on her desk is growing on a near daily basis and it’s beginning to look like she just might have to give up on the whole own-your-own-business thing.
And that’s when Andy and Gary Zander show up on her doorstep. Desperate to save their own fledgling closet company from obscurity, the mismatched brothers hire Tobi to put Zander Closet Company on the map once and for all.
It looks like a match made in Heaven until Tobi’s slogan becomes a blueprint for murder…
DEATH IN ADVERTISING by Laura Bradford
When Tobi Tobias decided to open her own ad agency, having to moonlight in a pet shop wasn’t part of her vision . . . of course, neither was murder.
Sometimes when opportunity knocks, the door you open leads to a closet. That’s certainly the case for Tobi, whose weekends spent cleaning cages in her best friend’s pet shop may soon be over. She’s just landed her first big break—Zander Closet Company needs a catchy campaign slogan ASAP, and Tobi thinks she’s got the right hook to knock ’em dead: “When we’re done, even your skeletons will have a place.”
But when a real dead body topples out of a showcase closet, she’s about to discover there is such a thing as bad publicity. To save her fledgling business and not get killed by the competition, Tobi takes on a new pet project: solving the murder. But with a stressed-out parrot as the only witness to the crime, Tobi will really have to wing it to put the cagey killer behind bars.
YOU CAN PURCHASE DEATH IN ADVERTISING AT:
Kensington Books
Author Bio:
Laura is the national bestselling author of several mystery series, including the Emergency Dessert Squad Mysteries, the Amish Mysteries, the Jenkins & Burns Mysteries, and the brand new Tobi Tobias Mysteries. She is a former Agatha Award nominee, and the recipient of an RT Reviewer’s Choice Award in romance. When she’s not writing, Laura enjoys making memories with her family, baking, and being an advocate for those living with Multiple Sclerosis.
To learn more, visit her website: www.laurabradford.com, or hang out with her on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/laurabradfordauthor/?fref=ts. She can also be found occasionally tweeting at: @Bradfordauthor.
Author Links:
Website: http://laurabradford.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bradfordauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Bradford/316744455035472
