Law & Order: Economic Indicators

A month ago in Slate, Jack Swansburg brilliantly dissected the connection between TD Waterhouse, the Law & Order stars featured in its ads, and our nation's economy. Steven Hill, aka Executive District Attorney Adam Schiff, reminded investors that TD Waterhouse was trustworthy in uncertain economic times. Recently, Sam Waterston, Assistant Executive D.A. Jack McCoy, took over for Hill in TV and print spots during this slow crawl to better economic times. Swansburg also mentioned ads Jerry Orbach did for TD Waterhouse in the late 90s, and explained why taking the man behind the Briscoe was a good idea back then:

In that giddy time, Orbach was an obvious choice. Though there were perhaps still a few people out there for whom Orbach would always be "the dad from Dirty Dancing," for the rest of us Orbach was Lennie Briscoe, which made him a natural pitch man for a roll-the-dice investment era. Briscoe is known for calling a spade a spade and for calling sex the horizontal hula. He's honest, but he's not a scold. He's not your typical investor—even the casual Law & Order viewer knows that Lennie's investment experience is limited to placing bets at the OTB—but that was the point. To succeed in the New Economy, the ad suggested, you didn't need a subscription to the Wall Street Journal or a white collar, just a nose for a good horse.

Well, thanks to our super special source, we have that print ad (click image to enlarge), which makes stock brokerage the only establishment this side of Dick Wolf to harness the power of L&O so brilliantly. [Reader Matt K. and a few others emailed Gothamist about the Slate piece back in December - belated thanks]

Gothamist proudly displays our autographed picture of Sam Waterston in our home.