Business Presentation Using More Prop Work Than Called For

by Kim Rogers

LOS ANGELES– Local advertising agency executives left their all-staff meeting shocked on Wednesday, after witnessing a funding presentation using more prop work than called for. Employees were stunned when what seemed like a standard Powerpoint presentation grew into a card trick, cooking demo, and science experiment in under thirty minutes.

Adam Elbaum, the junior executive behind the demonstration, claimed he’d been stewing on his funding pitch for weeks and was searching for ways to make his points pop.

“Nobody wants to listen to some number cruncher rattle off figures,” explained Elbaum, sipping from a novelty coffee cup. “But put a chef’s hat on his head and suddenly we’re cooking up some fun funding.”

While a majority of Elbaum’s coworkers described the presentation as “memorable,” some felt the connections between his visual aids and his so-called “Five Funding Power Points” were a bit of a stretch.

“The indoor fireworks crossed a line for me. I just didn’t see the relation to our market projections for Fiscal Year 2018,” said Carla Peretti, one of Elbaum’s colleagues. “Plus, setting off the smoke detectors seemed a touch over the top.”

Others took issue with the interactive portion of the pitch, when Elbaum called upon his audience to stand in a circle and participate in the popular icebreaker, “Two Truths and a Lie.” The game lasted ten minutes, a third of Elbaum’s allotted time.

C.F.O. Michelle Pruitt remembers the activity:

“In retrospect, I think he was just stalling while he set up the puppet theater.”