OPINION: Stuart Elliott in America.(Brief Article)

Madison Avenue has been awash in nostalgia lately, looking back to help itself look ahead. One reason is the upcoming release of Mary Wells Lawrence's autobiography, A Big Life (In Advertising), in which the fabled female agency leader offers the first extended recap of how she did it her way.

The other reason for the recent retrofest is the death last week of Jay Chiat, the legendary adman whose risk-taking and rule-breaking at Chiat/Day in the 70s and 80s helped remake the industry he was part of for almost four decades. Examples of the Chiat legacy are legion. He introduced account planning to the United States in 1982 by bringing over Jane Newman from London. The Chiat/Day spot for the Apple Macintosh PC, '1984', created the extravagant, annual big-event Super Bowl commercial that football fans anticipate almost as much as the game, if not more so.

Chiat also decentralised the US ad industry, once concentrated primarily in New York and Chicago, by making Los Angeles 'an advertising powerhouse', as the Los Angeles Times said in his obituary. Not only did that bring a new West Coast-centric style and look to campaigns, it facilitated the rise of other cities as alternative sources of creative prowess, such as Boston, Portland and San Francisco.

Additionally, Chiat/Day's work such as '1984', 'I Love LA' for Nike and EB, the peripatetic Energizer battery bunny, expanded advertising's role in shaping the popular culture, as commercials were covered not just by trade publications but also in general-interest newspapers, magazines and on television.

And yet, and yet. For all his myriad accomplishments, Chiat fell short in achieving perhaps the one he prized most above all: ensuring that Chiat/Day would continue to ...