Brief

Paul Cavanaugh will do anything for the appreciation of his boss, Mitch Blake. His loyalty gets tested, however, as it takes a toll on his personal life and he starts to see cracks in the facade at the top. Inspired by a true big-budget magazine flop at the home of Vogue and Vanity Fair.

What We Liked

- This is a very contemporary story about the downfall of the print industry as well as corporate greed and the false idol mentality that can come with a high pressure job;
- This story is relatable to anyone struggling under the current corporate system;
- As a film this would be like a funnier, less glamorous Wolf of Wall Street--people will want to watch these powerful men hit their breaking point;
- This would be a modern, funnier Mad Men--people would tune in every week for the schadenfreude of watching Paul deal with his bosses as well as to watch the drama of the corporate politics scene unfold;
- Timely and funny.

Synopsis

Paul Cavanaugh tracks his career in print magazine marketing from the early 2000s to 2007, right before the market crashed. Paul first started working for the magazine Bellwether under the supervision of John, a day drinker with a “work hard play hard” mentality, but Paul was always curious about Mitch Blake, Carlyle Nash's golden boy executive who seemed to be on the rise. When Mitch Blake takes over at Bellwether, John can see the end is near for him there, and encourages Paul to go with him to work at another Carlyle Nash magazine under Mitch Blake's foe, Simon, but Paul has his heart set on staying at Bellwether and winning over the new guy.

Tensions grow between Paul and his wife Diane, as he consistently chooses his job over her and their young son, Aidan. He works hard to prove himself to Mitch Blake and eventually follows him to their new magazine, World. Mitch promises his team a day off if they can beat the previous record for ad pages set by Simon, and the team delivers. Despite bad buzz about World magazine starting in the press, Mitch sets another high goal for the second issue - he starts giving the employees beach balls - representing days off for good performance - with “incentive cards” attached, and a frenzy starts at the office. The problem? The magazine isn’t doing that well, so there’s no way he can afford giving everybody that kind of incentive. He’s just using the team.

A few days later, Paige, Mitch's assistant and Paul's friend, is desperately trying to track down the beach balls. She tells Paul that there was a product recall. To pacify Paige, Paul grabs a beach ball from a pregnant woman on leave who left her ball at the office, and sees the incentive card. He realizes that Mitch doesn't care about the balls, and probably just wants the incentive cards back, so he doesn’t have to reward every single card holder. He’s been lying about the magazine’s situation all along.

Paul's uncle dies, and Paul is distraught, but chooses to skip the funeral so that he can go to an "offsite" retreat for work. At the offsite, crumbling from the pressure of work and his personal life falling apart, Paul has a public mental breakdown. Paul devises a plan to expose the beach ball and Mitch's failures to the publishers. Paul rekindles his relationship with Diane and learns to balance his life better.

About The Author

Gerard Farrell has been working for the magazine industry since the late ‘90s, including an ill-fated publication at Conde Nast. In addition to longer works, he often writes short humor for DUCTS.