Thompson, known for his cocaine breakfast and fast-loose-fun writing style, resented the branding that made him famous. Believing readers were more motivated to participate in his image than they were to read his writing, he had a complicated relationship with Ralph Steadman’s moody illustration, which shows the writer ripping down the highway, his mouth wide like a black hole underneath his bucket hat and glasses. This image is so powerful that 22-year-old boys who haven’t read the book are still dressing up as him, every year, for Halloween.
What a writerly impulse to doubt the writing. Of course, if the writing sucked, it wouldn’t be a continued symbol of cool. The there always has to be there. To endure, a myth needs substance. That said, the image (and brand it created) did make him famous. It wasn’t just the writing. The right brand takes whatever—book, product, artwork—and puts it into orbit.
The right atmosphere can even make people book flights that they maybe shouldn’t. The line "What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas” has been inspiring travelers, like myself and my newly 21-year-old sister, for twenty years now. Coined in 2003 by the agency R&R Partners, the tagline was meant to inspire play beyond gambling. Come on, the city said, join our playground.
The reason why it works though, much like Thompson’s novel, is because it’s substantive. It’s true of what makes this place what it is. It just wouldn’t have worked for somewhere else. Unlike the “Virginia is for lovers” line. Makes you think…really? I think they are much better places for lovers (Paris, for one.) In seven words this ad company summarized decades of mythic mafia party energy.
Speaking of a party. On Friday night I met a cartoonish, raffish, despair-filled man. He was a trader, but he told me that “he should have been a comedian.” On the whole, he was funny (why is this so often the case with men in finance?)
Anyway, right after telling an awful story about losing the love of his life due to totally avoidable actions on his part (he’s at peace with it) he recalled a breakfast special at one of his favorite strip clubs “Eggs and legs.” Now that’s good branding. You just wanna say it!
The initial concept for “What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas” was "What Happens Here, Stays Here." There’s no sing-song to it. I mean, it wasn’t just Hunters’s book jacket—it was the title too. He should have resented that with equal measure. “Fear and loathing in Las Vegas.” You want to say it again and again. Uber—fun to say. Mac—more fun than Macintosh. “What happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas.” A lazy rhyme but who cares? You wanna throw it around like dice.
It’s fun to watch people watch their dice. Over the weekend, this is what I loved doing the most. It was rare to watch people so hyper-aware, seeing what was in front of them. Not something that happens so often anymore. We go about in a half-in, half-out daze. Maybe it’s not only the money on the line but the sense of story that has people there so engaged. While in the city, you feel like you’re participating in a plot. I even felt glamorous in my cheap hotel room. Because, could this room, in this way, exist somewhere else?
But still, I have a feeling that the Las Vegas tourism board is going to have to hire another all-star ad agency. That invitation to an inhibition-less zone rings less true. Less sexy, the city is more sterile now. I’d say they’ve swung too far away from Sin City and into summer camp. How can what happens there, stay there when there’s a 10-year-old recording TikTok dances in the lobby? You can blame the shift from grit and glamour to the tonal consistency of a cruise ship on the mega-resorts that started plucking up places in the late 80s. The homogenization is ongoing. The Mirage just hosted their last show on Saturday night. It’s being demolished by Hard Rock. Dave spoke wistfully about it while he drove us to the airport. He went with his wife. It was their favorite place on the strip. The guitar they’re installing, he said, is going to be “so ugly.”
Still, the people are friendly and the stories endure. Also, as one of my friends pointed out, even though it’s a huge city with millions of tourists, it somehow smells like sugar, all the time, everywhere. Maybe, she said in a text, they have it in the vents. It’s wafting through the air.
Go if you can. Gawk. See the story before it’s gone.
Share a Vegas anecdote.
SMELLS LIKE SUGAR