“Stop the car….STOP THE CAR!!!!”
I could hardly believe my eyes…as we sat at the lights I happened to glance over to the line of retail shops all jostling for trade and there in the front window were the most be-a-utiful pair of wingtips…
I knew that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a man about town, I really needed to look like a man about town, and to look like a man about town I must have those shoes.
I pressed myself against the window and tried to read the price tag…oh that was 4 times what I earned in a week!
“Hey, Ferdie…got any spare on you…pay you back…you know I’m good for it.” I yelled, knowing the answer before the question had even reached my friend’s ears.
“Marco…stop dreaming those big dreams…what are you a wiseguy? You aint never gonna make enough money to buy the suit to wear with those shoes.” he laughed…”You gonna wear out the leather on those wingtips before you even got enough for the fancy socks to put on your feet to put in those shoes.”
Oh he was on a roll…I had heard enough.
I kept my composure in front of the small audience he had managed to attract with his little diatribe about my financial situation and I vowed that I would prove him wrong, and when I did I would buy 2 pairs of those wingtip shoes and make him eat one of them!
That was my driving force, my motivation. I would one day walk proudly in my wingtips, with my suit and silk socks and watch as Ferdie, the guy who mocked my ambition, shined my shoes…oh yess sir…money means power, we all know that.
Money means wingtips and everything they stand for…how’s that for emotive branding! Got your own wingtip story? I have. There is a particular designer I just looooove but cannot justify the expense…one day I shall have my ‘wingtips’…then I’ll know I’ve made ‘it’…And those snooty sales assistants will see what an important person I have become…won’t they? And then I will be happy…won’t I?? Because things maketh the man…don’t they??? That’s what the advertising told me anyway…
