In 2002, the creative team at Las Vegas’ largest advertising agency began working feverishly on a campaign to reinvent the city’s image.
They wanted to veer away from prior failed attempts to market Las Vegas’ family-friendly roller coasters and attractions. They wanted to portray the city as a destination for adults who wanted to let loose in ways they normally wouldn’t. They wanted something brash, something edgy, something that ushered in a new era.
They wanted something that captured what made Vegas Vegas.
Out of all the seasoned pros who took on that challenge, the ones who struck advertising gold were a pair of 20-something copywriters with plenty of blank space on their resumes. Jason Hoff told Yahoo Sports that he and Jeff Candido bounced ideas off one another for days until they agreed on a now-iconic five-word tagline and a cheeky story to go with it.
The commercial begins with a woman in a low-cut blue top and stiletto boots sliding into the back of a limousine. She brazenly flirts with her limousine driver before vanishing behind the privacy divider. When they arrive at the airport, the driver opens the limo door and is surprised to see the woman step out dressed conservatively, phone to her ear and her hair in a tidy bun. The spot then ends with the words, “What happens here, stays here.”
“When we came up with the tagline, we both were like, ‘Wow, that’s it!!’” Hoff recalled. “The agency and the client were on board, but it wasn’t until years later that any of us understood this was going to be a forever line.”
The commercial that Hoff and Candido dreamed up isn’t just the opener for a wildly successful ad campaign. It also stands as a 30-second monument to Las Vegas’ transformation from sports pariah to sports haven.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority was ready to shell out more than $2 million to launch its new ad campaign during Super Bowl XXXVII. Instead the NFL refused to air it, citing concerns about any…
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