Although the surroundings have changed -- he's now in a first floor office a couple of trumpet blasts from Music Hall -- Galvin & Friends is a one-man operation. The "Friends" are two doors north in the Kemper Gaede Beane ad agency, which had been Galvin Kemper until Galvin and Robbie Kemper dissolved their 15-year business relationship in mid-October.

The primary difference between the Jerry Galvin of Swifton Shopping Center and the Galvin that has emerged in Over-the-Rhine is that he now has a well-defined track record.

Galvin, who over the years has become something of a Cincinnati personality, readily concedes that what he's done in the past can be both a help and a hindrance.

Interpreting the inflection and tone of "Oh, you're Jerry Galvin" or "Oh, you're the Plummet Mall guy" is critical to determining if Galvin's talking with a fan of his off-center sense of humor and some of his edgy ad campaigns or someone who determined 20 years ago that he had heard all that he ever wanted to hear about Jerry Galvin.

The Plummet Mall radio ad campaign in early 1985 was launched on Cincinnati radio stations that had combined resources to draw attention to the power of radio advertising after Biggs, the grocery and discount retailer, devoted its entire advertising budget to television. Four different spots focused on a fictitious underground shopping mall with the tagline: "The best value in town is a hole in the ground."

The campaign -- developed by Galvin and WEBN-FM's Jay Gilbert -- created plenty of buzz and coverage by other media and a marketing research firm hired by the stations said 40 percent of the people it contacted had heard about the bogus mall.

"I was blessed by the fact that people say, `You're the Plummet Mall guy,' which is kind of nice to be known for something, and the other side of it is: `You're the Plummet Mall guy,'" said Galvin. "Hey, I do more than goofy fake malls," he said.

"The mark of a professional is to know when wacky and wonderful works and when something straightforward works and when something in the middle works," Galvin said.

Although he's still doing some projects different enough to be vetoed by the client, Galvin has been paying the bills with a variety of straightforward assignments, some of which come from a handful of accounts, including non-profits, he hung on to when Galvin Kemper dissolved.

A fact-packed, no-joke brochure about the National Association of Development Companies, based in Washington, D.C., is a project that's kept him busy in recent months.

Other current clients include the Cincinnati office of the investment firm of A.G. Edwards, Victory Community Bank, Foundation Bank, Volunteers of America, Prospect House, the Hamilton County Development Co. and TyTek Industries.

Galvin also is working with companies that have in-house creative departments that may need the fresh perspective of an outsider.

As might be expected, he's not always welcomed with open arms.

"Sometimes I'm the one who has to look the boss in the eye and say, `That's a lousy idea. Here's what you've got to do instead.' Sometimes I can wind up with a project (where) the in-house people are ticked off and the boss ain't all that happy. But if the work does what it's supposed to do, I get another phone call and we do it again."