Does anyone at TBWA actually surf?

Flickr user parkerkrhoyt has posted this photo from the lobby of TBWA\Chiat\Day in Playa del Rey, Calif., along with a brief, amusing account of his visit to the agency. A “several page non-disclosure document” keeps him from revealing the purpose of his meeting, but apparently he hasn’t done much research about the agency’s upper management. “If there’s one thing I guess I somewhat expected from ad agencies, it’s a certain degree of quirkiness,” he writes. “Once you were in the main building, it was like a giant jungle gym maze with corridors that went under, over and around the entire structure, including various cubicle work spaces. Just flat out strange. In the lobby itself there were placed just inside the door a series of four surfboards. Okay, I get the connection to Los Angeles, but what else does that have to do with an ad agency that focuses on automobile vendors? It was also the only splash of color in the lobby. Can I go back to Kansas please, because Oz is just freaking me out (wink).” Guess he’s never heard of this guy.

—Posted by Tim Nudd

September 8, 2006 | Permalink