The Pay Day
Is the zany sequel to Ron Elgin’s best- seller Hucksterville, featuring Megan Santucci, the once beautiful, brilliant advertising agency whiz kid who became addicted to booze and drugs and ended up homeless and living in a cardboard box under a bridge. After kicking her addictions, she became the star creative director of Tight Fit Athletics. After owner Max Foreskin was eaten in his Seattle office by a crocodile, his sister Lotta showed up from her animal farm in Africa to take charge. Megan hated Lotta as much as she did Max, but led her motley team to unparalleled success. It wasn’t all roses, however; Lotta was a multibillionaire used to getting her way. That didn’t sit well with Megan.
Hard Cover $34.99 (+$8 for tax & shipping)
“What a fun read. It’s not often that a book grabs you right from the beginning, then takes you on a bizarre journey. There’s a line from Bette Davis in All About Eve: ‘Fasten your seatbelts; it’s going to be a bumpy ride.’ That line was constantly in my head as I read. You know you are hooked when the character’s outrageous names become totally natural. As fun as the story is, the serious undertone tells about the depth of the human condition and our deepest desires. A great book, and a great gift to any thinker.”
— John Diestler, College Art Professor, Retired
Hucksterville
The zany story of a recovering alcoholic, currently homeless woman’s bizarre attempt to re-enter the ultra-competitive advertising business with the ultimate goal of owning her own agency; all she has to do is overcome obstacles such as a horrible, absolutely incompetent asshole of a boss and create a brilliant ad campaign with a bizarre team including two very strange creatives with the same name but one with a serious flatulence problem, a confused cross dresser, a man who can’t stop swearing and a gentle giant who accidentally killed his first opponent in a cage fight. Toss in an unbelievable murder and wish her luck.
Hucksterville Hard Cover $34.99 (+$8 for tax & shipping)
“Ron Elgin has done it again with his third book! As a titan of the advertising industry himself, Elgin brings his true knowledge and experience into his first published work of fiction. Set in Seattle, Hucksterville takes the reader on a journey of unlikely advertising creatives charting their course through the business. In the process, Elgin makes hilarious comparisons between the recruitment industry and, ahem, another service industry, as well as commentary about how the ‘crazy’ people of society may just be highly creative. With Hucksterville, Elgin has woven together a cast of unforgettable characters and humor on almost every page. His first work of fiction is immensely readable, heartwarming and hilarious—just what we need, especially right now!”
— Anna Sheppard, Attorney-at-Law
Huckster: My Life as an ad man
A humorous account of Ron Elgin’s forty-year career in the intensely challenging, extraordinarily competitive, and sometimes insanely whacky advertising agency business.
Rather than write a “How to” book about advertising, Ron decided to share the hilarious tale of how he co-founded one of the most successful advertising agencies in the Pacific Northwest—Elgin Syferd—and perhaps in the process teach readers a thing or two about advertising, business, and life.
Huckster Hard Cover $34.99 (+$8 for tax & shipping)
“Huckster is a more engaging and entertaining representation of the ups and downs of our beloved business than the Mad Men writers could ever imagine. The italicized lessons that occur throughout the book will be helpful to anyone trying to make it, not only in advertising but in business and life in general. I loved it! All of it!”
— Keith Reinhard, Chairman Emeritus, DDB Worldwide
The Man Behind the Curtain
The Man Behind the Curtain is a humorous account of Ron Elgin’s forty-year career in the intensely challenging, extraordinarily com- petitive, and sometimes insanely whacky advertising agency business.
Ron’s best-selling prequel, Huck- ster: My Life as an Ad Man, told the hilarious tale of how he co-founded one of the region’s most successful agencies and taught readers a thing or two about advertising, PR, mar- keting, business, and life. Readers showered Huckster with praise and requested more.
Man Behind the Curtain Hard Cover $34.99 (+$8 for tax & shipping)
“Just finished the sequel to my favorite book of 2015, Huckster. This new favorite is smart, crass, funny, disgusting, and absolutely brilliant!”
— Andrew Skotdal, President, S-R Broadcasting
About Ron Elgin
For four decades, Ron Elgin was involved in the world of advertising. He began as an intern for Cole & Weber, then worked as a copywriter before switching to the account side of that agency. His next step would transform the Seattle advertising community forever.
In 1981, Ron joined with Dave Syferd to create a different kind of agency–one without boundaries, where each communication discipline would have an equal voice in helping solve business problems. That agency grew from the market’s smallest to the largest and became a true national player as DDB Seattle.
Right from the beginning, Ron was smart enough to understand that he needed to hire people who were, as he’d put it, “smarter than me.” But that wasn’t enough. Because he wanted to give those smart people a great place to work, he instituted a strict “No Assholes Allowed” policy. Ron set a high standard for the work they did, but he did not micromanage. He let his people run the show, even when it made him uncomfortable–which it often did. They were challenged to take risks and given “the freedom to fail.” It paid off.
As Ron became an ambassador for the Seattle advertising community, he also found time to sit on countless charitable, cultural and civic boards. Giving back was just part of Ron’s DNA, and it soon became part of his agency’s DNA. The agency’s Charity Golf Classic, an indoor competition served for 20 years as the ad community’s cornerstone fundraising event in support of children’s charities. The agency did good work, as in work for the greater good.
Of course, as everyone who knows Ron will say, he loves his family more than anything. He knows he wouldn’t be where he is without Bonnie, his “beautiful, extremely bright and patient” wife of 51 years; and the world’s most wonderful “daughter, Alison”; “son-in-law, Brett”; “granddaughter, Logan”; “and grandsons, Hutton and Ripley.”
Even after retiring from DDB, Ron’s still not done. He created a marketing consulting firm, re:connects, sits on several corporate boards for both established and startup companies, and in all his spare time, Ron wrote the non-fiction best-sellers, Huckster and The Man Behind the Curtain. Huckstervile is his first work of fiction.
Ron Elgin is one of the few to reach Seattle Advertising Icon status receiving the Silver Medal Award by the American Advertising Federation in 2012. He’s enormously proud that his legacy includes building an award-winning agency that became the market leader and reinforced Seattle’s image as a national player paving the way for so many others to carry that torch even further.
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