RIOT AFTERMATH: GETTING BACK TO BUSINESS : Riots Lay Waste to L.A.’s Fun and Sun Facade
For a good time, drink a beer. For a better time, go to Los Angeles.
For years, that has been the image that Madison Avenue has repeated endlessly in TV spots. And Budweiser had high hopes of combining those two images. Beginning this past weekend--and throughout the summer--the beer maker had plans to film a series of regional commercials that were supposed to show real Los Angeles residents having loads of fun.
The filming of Bud Light’s “Spotlight on Los Angeles” ad campaign was abruptly canceled late last week in the aftermath of the verdicts in the Rodney G. King beating case. So were dozens of other TV commercials scheduled to be filmed here.
Suddenly, the Los Angeles stranglehold on TV ad locations is threatened. Companies that tie their products’ image to the city’s image are thinking twice. The TV commercial production capital of the world is being viewed by people worldwide as a city of peril. And the images of palm trees, movie stars and swimming pools are being replaced by more stark images of burning buildings, looters and pools of blood.
“Los Angeles can no longer be used as a commercial symbol of something to aspire to,” said Carol Moog, a Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.-based advertising psychologist. “Los Angeles is now a symbol of violence and injustice.”
A far cry this is from Los Angeles’ long-held reputation as the land of fast cars and film stars. Over and over again, these stereotypes have appeared in advertisements. Last summer, Pepsi filmed its “chill-out” summer-long promotion on the beach here. And Absolut vodka continues to run print ads that feature a bottle of vodka in the shape of a swimming pool above the headline, “Absolut L.A.”
Executives from Absolut were unavailable for comment on their plans for the ad. But an executive at Absolut’s New York agency, TBWA Advertising, said the ad will not be pulled.
Advertising industry executives say the tone of any ads that feature Los Angeles will have to be carefully considered for months to come. “The concept of the good life in Los Angeles will not have much meaning for a while,” said Cliff Einstein, creative director at the Los Angeles agency Dailey & Associates. “We have to actually make it good to live here again for that image to be effective.”
The Bud Light ads were to have been part of a regional marketing campaign that was supposed to make people who live here feel special. The ads were to feature Los Angeles residents having fun at local landmarks, restaurants, shops--even in their back yards. The ads were to have included music from the upbeat song “What I Like About You.”
“Needless to say, we have postponed this campaign,” said Bob Lachky, senior brand manager for Bud Light in St. Louis. “It’s possible we may never do it.”
But radio spots promoting the campaign were unintentionally aired during a baseball game late last week. The ads told Los Angeles residents that they might run into the Bud Light film crew during the summer--and could find themselves starring in the ads.
Lachky said a final decision on whether to film the ads won’t be made for a while. A similar regional campaign in Texas had good results, he said. In the meantime, the beer maker will air its national ads in the Los Angeles market.
Pepsi also had plans to film a flashy, national commercial here late last week. But filming on that summer TV spot was also put on hold during the riots. A spokesman said the soft drink company is still not certain if it will film the spot in Los Angeles--or elsewhere.
“The luster of this city has been hurt,” said Joe Pytka, the Venice-based director of numerous Pepsi commercials. “It will take us a long time to get out from under this.”
Like many directors, Pytka was forced to stop filming TV spots late last week when the riots grew in size. “How can you concentrate on something as frivolous as filming ads at a time like this?” he asked.
A number of commercials that were to be filmed in Los Angeles were moved out to the San Fernando Valley--and even to San Francisco. Several Los Angeles neighborhoods far from the center of the violence backed out during the riots because “they didn’t want the attention that film companies can cause on location,” said Ron Hacohen, head of production at HKM Productions.
Some firms, however, are already advertising their regional optimism. In a print ad headlined, “It’s Time to Work Together,” American Savings Bank has pledged $1 million to start rebuilding Los Angeles. Print ads for Hollywood Park that are scheduled to appear today say, “It’s times like this when we’re reminded that it all comes down to one race: the human race.”
And the city’s Economic Development Corp. will continue to air its month-old “L.A. Means Business” campaign aimed at attracting new companies. “After the dust settles,” said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the group, “we will really have to let people know that L.A. does mean business.” But there was virtually no TV commercial production business in Los Angeles--or Santa Monica--from Thursday through Sunday. During that time, the cities stopped issuing permits to film TV spots--except in a few areas unaffected by the riots.
Film Permits Unlimited, a Van Nuys firm that specializes in obtaining production permits, said 28 of its clients canceled filming ads here last week.
Some wonder how quickly advertisers will return to Los Angeles. “People back East think Los Angeles is under siege,” said Charles M. Weisenberg, who oversees the motion picture and television permit office for the city. Los Angeles issues permits for about 1,200 TV spots filmed here annually.
“If this image lingers, it could have an horrendous long-term affect,” said Bill Perna, president of the Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers/West. “People will view Los Angeles like a nation that is politically unstable.”
Briefly . . .
Ketchum Directory Advertising of Los Angeles has acquired the $40-million national Yellow Pages agency operations of Mast Advertising & Publishing--a division of Southwestern Bell. . . . The Santa Monica agency Suissa Miller has won a creative advertising project from Disney Home Video. . . . The Hollywood agency Paul & Walt Worldwide has signed a two-year contract to create radio ads for CBS Television Network. . . . Sanyo Consumer Electronics has named Asher/Gould of Los Angeles as its agency. . . . To aid in its image-consulting assignment for client Coca-Cola, the Hollywood talent agency Creative Artists has hired ad veteran Len Fink, a former associate creative director at Chiat/Day/Mojo in New York. . . . Blatant Pepsi promotions that take place in the middle of some shows at Sea World in San Diego are being booed. . . . The national ad manager for Toyota, Gerald Perry, will speak at a gathering of the Ad Club of Los Angeles at 5:30 p.m. on May 12 at the Cheesecake Factory in Redondo Beach. . . . More than 700 ad executives are expected to attend the American Advertising Federation’s annual ad conference June 12-16 at the Portland Hilton in Portland, Ore.
