How to Get Ahead in Advertising

Denis Dimbleby Bagley is a successful but neurotic advertising executive in London, known for his quick wit and inventive pitches. Life appears to be running smoothly until he is assigned a campaign for a new acne cream, a product he finds impossible to market honestly. Under increasing pressure from his demanding boss and anxious clients, Bagley begins to unravel, suffering a creative block that leaves him frustrated and unable to deliver results. His obsession with the challenges of his work starts seeping into his personal life, straining his marriage and turning ordinary interactions into battlegrounds for his philosophical rants against the ethics of advertising.

Bagley’s spiraling stress manifests physically when he develops a stubborn boil on his neck. He becomes fixated on this grotesque blemish, seeing it as both a symbol of his inner turmoil and a reminder of the very afflictions he is supposed to exploit for profit. The boil’s presence grows ever more intrusive as Bagley’s sanity wavers; he alienates friends and colleagues with his erratic behavior and surreal monologues about consumerism, morality, and public manipulation. As the pressure mounts from all sides, Bagley's grip on reality becomes increasingly tenuous, setting him on a bizarre collision course with his own darkest impulses and the absurdities of the world he inhabits.