THE PIGLETS AND POP PRINCIPLE:
Telling What You're Selling
by Jody Serey

We live in an age of communication – way too much communication. We are barraged with information configured in every conceivable format, from the simple to the sublime.

We network, email, fax, call, go digital, do lunch, work the room, feed the grapevine and blitz the media, all in an effort to "grow the business." Yet despite our frantic efforts to communicate, we may not be comprehending.
I recently found myself on a two-lane road in the rural outskirts of town. As I approached a little house, my attention was drawn to a sign. Hand lettered in drippy black paint on a piece of plywood and propped up by the driveway, it read: PIGLETS AND POP.

Of course I had to stop to inspect the inventory. As I parked my car, the door to the house opened and a very old man made his way towards me.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"I was wondering about your sign," I said.

"Made it myself," he said.

"Yes, indeed. I mean I was wondering about what you have for sale."

"Piglets and pop."

"Yes, piglets and pop. That's a very unusual combination."

The man turned and looked me in the eye. "That's what I've got. Piglets and pop."

"Can you tell me how you arrived at your selection?"

"You mean how come I've got piglets and pop?"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

The old man breathed in a long sigh, and thought a moment. Then he said, "Well, I bought some cases of pop at the scratch and dent outlet for all the construction workers digging up the road. Set up a table and put the cans in a cooler. Fifty cents apiece. Then some guy gave my granddaughter one of those Vietnam pigs."

"A Vietnamese potbellied pig?"

"She was potbellied all right. She was pregnant. So then I had piglets, too. Decided to sell them, too, since I already had my lawnchair set up by the table. I just had one piece of plywood for a sign."

I understood at last. "Piglets and pop."

"Piglets and pop."

He hadn't put up a sign touting "refreshing carbonated beverages" and "adorable miniature cloven-hoofed porcine pets."

He couldn't. He had only one piece of plywood -- just enough to let him say what he had for sale: piglets and pop.

I couldn't resist asking a final question. "How's business?"

"Not bad," he said. "I sold two piglets already. And I'm all out of lemon lime."

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