"LOS ANGELES IS LIKE DETROIT WITH PALM TREES"

That’s what Mad Men TV show ad man Don Draper says to a colleague wanting to re-locate to LA. This is so not true and wasn’t in 1968 when the episode is taking place.  Think about it.

Detroit had Chevrolet, Ford and Chrysler; people eating elephantine portions of steak and potatoes without a care; and it was way too hot in the summer and way too cold in the winter.  Traditional good old boy establishment ad agencies represented all the traditional good old boy establishment car companies turning out ads as traditional as the companies and agencies themselves and their previous ad.

LA had Honda and Toyota (Asian imports were on their way to capturing 50+% market share); good looking and fit concerned folks eating grains and greens; and seventy-five degrees and sunny almost all the time.  And, Los Angeles had an entirely new breed of ad agency emerging that would soon demonstrate and dominate creativity in the ad world.

The West Coast would become a hotbed of creative ad agencies and creative ads. Chiat/Day would be founded in 1968 setting standards of creativity established before only by Doyle Dane Bernbach. Chiat/Day would introduce the Honda Civic to America. Later on they would make Porsche the preeminent sports car brand in the country.  Then they would acquire Nissan and advertise their cars in ways Detroit could and would never even think of.  And, soon after do the same for Infiniti.

In 1968 LA was a hell of a lot more than Detroit as far as advertising went. The Mad Men TV show  doesn't always get it right. The real world of advertising back then was in a creative earthquake.  It was an insane time.

The Insanity of Advertising   (www.theinsanityofadvertising)