Today, I’m restarting my marketing blog. But with one change. I’ve rebranded it as “Hey Midge!”
Where does this phrase come from? I’m glad you asked. Well, it’s pretty obvious that my last name is Midgley. But there is a story here. At one of the first agencies I worked for in the mid nineties, we ran into some first-name confusion. It was a small Utah agency of fewer than 20 people.
Problem was, there were three Jeffs.
To avoid the confusion, we had to limit ourselves to one Jeff. Here’s how the Jeffs stacked up.
Jeff #1: The first Jeff was Jeff Smith. He was one of the partners, and the agency name, Smith Harrison Direct, included his name. Therefore, by longstanding agency tradition and general boss-subordinate etiquette, he had first claim to all Jeff-ness.
Jeff #2: The second Jeff was the creative director I reported to, Jeff Duncan. To support the issue, he decided to go by his last name, Duncan (sometimes shortened to Dunc). Soon enough, all long timers and newcomers alike knew him solely as Duncan.
Jeff #3: At the bottom of the totem pole was me, a young and eager copywriter. Since Jeff was now officially reserved for referring to the partner, everyone started calling me by my last name too. At first it was Midgley—but why fumble over two syllables when you can go with one?
So they called me Midge.
Working at a small agency, it’s acceptable to yell loudly enough across the open areas so everyone can hear you. So it was not uncommon for an art director to beckon for one of us with an irreverent howl of “Hey Dunc!” or “Hey Midge!”
And so it was. Midge. The name most people in the work environment would call me for years to come. It stuck when I moved to my next agency too.
And yes, I know that Midge is the name of a small mosquito-like fly often brought up in fascinating conversations with fly fishers. But that’s beside the point of this story.
Over the years, I’ve been paged with “Hey Midge!” a thousand times. Now I’m bringing it back as the title of this blog.
heymidge.com 