  Metastable vacua in supersymmetric QCD in the presence of single and
multitrace deformations of the superpotential are explored, with the aim of
obtaining an acceptable phenomenology. The metastable vacua appear at one loop,
have a broken R-symmetry, and a magnetic gauge group that is completely
Higgsed. With only a single trace deformation, the adjoint fermions from the
meson superfield are approximately massless at one loop, even though they are
massive at tree level and R-symmetry is broken. Consequently, if charged under
the standard model, they are unacceptably light. A multitrace quadratic
deformation generates fermion masses proportional to the deformation parameter.
Phenomenologically viable models of direct gauge mediation can then be
obtained, and some of their features are discussed.
