Todd Miller

We were presenting a ​“Thanks­giving print adver­tise­ment” to the client, Pacific, Gas & Elec­tric Company. I forget the head­line, but the black & white illus­tra­tion showed a drawing of a turkey talking to a pig. A cartoon dialogue balloon pointing to the pig said, ​“I’m glad it’s you and not me.” The turkey was seen to reply, ​“Wait until Easter.…you’ll get yours”.

The client read the print ad and, with great business-like authority, he spoke, ​“We can’t do this. Pigs don’t talk to turkeys, and turkeys don’t talk to pigs.… pigs talk to other pigs and turkeys talk to other turkeys. I tried to keep from laughing. Speech­less I just nodded in agree­ment. (I knew the client was mistaken because some­time in the mid-1960’s, I’m sure I heard my narrow-minded dog laughing and making surely comments to my cat, who I had just tie-dyed a lovely red, green and purple).