Watching the Detectives

Advertising people working their creative magic often look like undercover cops on stakeout. Although the cops tend to dress better, both groups spend much of their time sitting around waiting for something—anything—to happen.

So it may have been inevitable that these two noble but often maligned forces would meet in the course of duty. In Los Angeles, the police recently initiated the contact, asking the good people at Crispin Porter + Bogusky if they could use the agency’s Venice Beach office as a perch from which to spy on suspected car thieves holed up across the street.