The Stakes
If you are a copywriter in 1999, the stakes for this pitch could not be higher.
As we’re creating this scripted series about the 1999 “Pitch of the Century” for American Gold, every writing guru, screenplay book, substack guru-adjacent-guru and most of our relatives have implored us to make sure each character has real stakes in the story…
Are they going to save: the world? their agency? their sobriety? themselves? Our hero is in recovery, and the prize for winning is that he gets to spend the next five years making beer irresistible. Success and relapse are behind the same door. That works over several seasons!
In 1999, I can tell what the stakes were for the agency copywriters - An all-expensed paid trip to Los Angeles, to stay at your choice of the finest hotels in Santa Monica (Shutters! Casa Del Mar! The Fairmont!) or West Hollywood (The Mondrian! The Standard! The Nikko!) while you allow professionals to shoot and edit a spot that you wrangled into a pitch. You don’t have to do anything since you’ve hired a crew of talent to do all of the work for you. They work on movies for God’s sake! You just show up, eat amazing meals (Sushi Roku! Dan Tanas! Chinois on Main!) and work with terribly creative people who are going to be really nice to you for the next month. Do you need a latte? Have you found craft service? This was advertising heaven.
So if you are a copywriter/art director team at an agency and this pitch comes along in 1999, you are definitely gunning to get your ideas in the show. In fact, you probably are going to shoot your boss a few thoughts before you even get briefed just to make sure you get on this team.
Attached is one of those pre-brief early “thoughts” we’ve unearthed as we keep digging for our own American Gold.
