buzz magazine

This campaign was the first to put Deutsch LA on the map with numerous awards from the Beldings, One Show, Andys, plus a ton of local and national press.

As competitor LA Magazine played into every cliché about Los Angeles, we positioned the more culture-savvy, literary Buzz Magazine as the voice of the real LA through realistic, "only in LA" billboards and radio spots. Later, we revealed them to be fake. Because if the services and products had been real, you'd have read about them in Buzz. Call the phone number and you'd get a humorous recorded message offering you a free magazine.

With a (highly) limited production budget, some barter radio spots, and only 7 billboards, we took LA by storm. Everyone speculated about the mysterious ads, from morning show DJs to local newscasters to the Tonight Show, and one poor DMV inspector from Sacramento who was furious about this unsanctioned topless traffic school. And above all, newsstand sales skyrocketed the week of the reveal.

ACD/CW: Liz Gumbinner | ACD/AD: Bill Tsapalas

Wall Street Journal: Topless Traffic School Billboards Drive State Investigators to Distraction [no paywall]

LA Times: Red Stoplight District

Orlando Sentinel: Satirical Billboards Keep Clueless in LA Guessing

LA Observed: Only in LA
LA Times: Nudity milestones through history