I was about to start allocating them when Owen walked in. He was not pleased from the look on his face. When he came to me, I gave him a look of confusion. "Good morning, Dr. Harper, I'm sure that by now you have had enough time and money to get some results for me. I would hope you have at least one of the prototypes ready." he said. I nodded with a smile. "You would be right. I did not want to make a fuss until they were all finished so they could be accepted all at once." I replied. "All at once, huh? Confident much." he scoffed with an eyebrow raised. I smiled wider and said "You can see for yourself." He gave me a hard look and walked past me. I showed him around and the team was on their best behavior. When he saw that all three were done, he chuckled to himself. "These certainly are... unique." he said. I did not say anything. "Have you tested them?" he asked. "That was what the extra time and money went to." I replied. He hummed to himself thoughtfully. "I see. Do you have some testimonials? We can use that in advertising the products." I found them and gave it to him.
Owen ordered the androids be packed up, and moved to a studio where a series of promotional videos could be shot. I offered a suggestion. "Since we have a merman, the shoot should have a summer theme. The Adamu and catboy could be relaxing poolside while the merman swims around in the pool." I said. He crossed his arm and shook his head. "No. Summer is too far away and the market will be saturated. Besides, this is a very first in this country. There are barely service droids. Being able to make these was just a way to corner the market in this country. If word gets out about them, the other companies will just flood the market with their old models at a huge discount. We can't have that." "Winter hot springs?" Keeping you warm on those cold nights?" I continued offering. He chuckled and said "A merman in a hot tub? That might actually be funny enough to sell." That was what was settled on. The androids were all waterproof, so having them in the large tub was no problem. The three team programmers had to put the script of the video in their heads. They did it all somehow and got it done.
The end result was more of a comedy script than anything. All were in skimpy outfits except for the merman who was naked. The catboy was cowering at the edge of the hot tub, looking distractingly at the heated water. It had its tail lashing in agitation. The Adamu woman was trying to convince the catboy to get in while the merman was overtly flirting with both of them and splashing happily water with its tail. The advertisement was focus grouped and slight changes were made. Overall, people liked it. It went out and became a viral hit. It was just promotional material that went out to all the countries Futafun Inc. worked in. It was more or less popular depending on the region. Corion was giving a positive response. We gave Owen all the schematics and files on how they were made. They would be taken to the main head quarters to be given the final approval. From there, it would be given to Adamu way better than us to streamline and trim the fat on the code for mass production. It got to an approval meeting fairly quickly based on the reaction to the advertisement. They were a bit concerned about it.
Many of the board members were not on board with the demi-human launch. The Adamu woman was a shoo in for approval and they moved that along first. The model would be mass produced soon. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that it was too risky and niche to put both of the out at the same time. They believed it to be a bad investment. Owen's boss was allowed to propose they pick which of the two would be put out first. Owen came to me with the news. I asked which one were they choosing. He shrugged and said "They decided to discuss it in a month at the next meeting." I smiled. "No time to lose. We have to push this. We will use some money on the campaign. Let's run more adds. We'll also put polls on the social media. They won't ignore money being thrown at them. They can't." He nodded and we got to work. The second and third commercials were prequels of the first about how they hoped they would be chosen by the Adamu model. The catboy partially over coming fear was second. The merman practicing and going over pickup lines was the third. I though it was endearing. The poll then went live.
