How to sell Toothpaste by Leonie Thorpe

How to sell Toothpaste by Leonie Thorpe. Pub. HarperCollins, 2012. 

This is a most witty and perceptive novel that exposes  the generation gap between father and son and  the world of cultural cringe, the advertising game.

Dom is between school and the rest of his life as he sees it. His immediate friends see things differently but Dom wants to make good decisions and has forgotten about having fun.

The cause of all this angst in his eyes, is his father, Justin Screech who changed his name to Justin Wild when he was eighteen. Justin is 37, a high flier in the Advertising game, keeps fit, dresses young, likes modern music and looks years younger than he is. He believes the world revolves around advertising and that it reflects culture and the way people want to be. The women are impressed and Dom is miffed big time.

While working in his father’s office he encounters a meeting between Justin and a marketing manager who wants to make his toothpaste a best seller. Dom brags about how easy that would be and accepts the challenge to present an idea that is young fresh and will make people buy toothpaste.

Well things are not that simple. But what will he come up with?

Leonie Thorpe tells it brilliantly with a wit that will have you smiling with admiration. She takes the world of TV advertising apart with witty scenarios that appear at the start of many chapters. I particularly liked the advert for a cure for parasitic tape worms.

A very appealing novel for teenagers and young adults. Great ending, it will make you smile.