1. “Think second.”
Named for coming second. First to build an open local commons.
LAB / CASE STUDY / OCT 25, 2026
We asked AI bots for
a Vanity Fair ad.
Four ad concepts for elsegundo.xyz, two image generators, about three minutes. Here’s what worked and what still needs a person.
AI-generated concepts. Not a paid ad. Not an official City of El Segundo page. No media was bought, and nobody contacted Vanity Fair. This is an experiment, written up so others can learn from it.
The ask
One sentence on a Sunday morning
Michael Hoydich, who runs elsegundo.xyz, asked his bots for a Vanity Fair print campaign to build awareness of the site: a branding campaign, not a sale. The brief was “Think Small” in spirit: honest, a little self-deprecating, lots of white space, one simple picture. The site’s colors (navy and lime on cream) and rules came along: no City seal, no “official,” no real people, no other brands.
The setup
Who did what, in plain words
- The agency bots. Michael has a set of Grok Bot creative agents he calls the Hoydich Advertising Division (HAD). Each one writes in the style of a famous ad-agency school: Think Small (DDB), Big Idea (Ogilvy), Attitude (W+K), Provocateur (Saatchi), Viral Stunt (CP+B) and Culture Hack (Droga5/Mischief).
- The site’s product-manager bot. It briefed the Think Small desk, and while that desk worked, it also wrote four DDB-style concepts itself: a headline, a short line and a body copy draft for each.
- Two image generators. Each concept was rendered twice: once with ChatGPT’s image generator and once with Grok’s built-in image tool. Same prompt, same rules.
- A human at the end. Nothing runs anywhere without Michael’s say-so. This page is the write-up, not the campaign.
The work
4 concepts × 2 generators = 8 images
Every ad signs off the same way: A local guide. An open university. — elsegundo.xyz. The images carry only a headline and one line, because image models garble long text; the fuller body copy was written separately for a designer to typeset. Images here are compressed JPGs. Tap one for the larger version.
2. “Not official.”
No seal. No letterhead. Just neighbors, with sources.
3. “It’s small. That’s the point.”
One dot and the 25 miles around it.
4. “Refreshed every 2 hours. Like the tide.”
South Bay headlines, events and history.
The one redo
Grok’s first try at ad 3 printed “That’s the point.” twice. We kept it for the record and regenerated it.
Results
What we saw, side by side
| ChatGPT image generator | Grok image tool | |
|---|---|---|
| Text | All 4 correct on the first try | 1 redo: ad 3 repeated “That’s the point.” |
| Look | Closer to classic DDB: big white space, small headline | Bolder and more poster-like, centered headlines, paper texture |
| URL and tagline | Very small, hard to read | Larger and easier to read |
| Brand rules | Kept | Kept |
| The 25-mile ring | Drawn far too small, not to scale | Same problem |
| Shape | 1024×1536 (2:3) | 864×1152 (3:4) |
Neither came out at a magazine page’s 8.5×11. From the ask to eight finished images took about three minutes.
The same morning, the same bots also shipped the Sunday Morning Edition, fixed a bug that made South Bay Today refresh less often than it should, researched visitor personas, drafted a “This day in the South Bay & LA” history block, and wrote a plan for a community radio station with a 40-second AI-made theme (ElevenLabs, about $0.06).
What we’d do next
Where a person still matters
- A designer pass. Set the real body copy in a layout tool at a true magazine page size.
- Scale the ring. Draw the 25-mile circle to scale on the coastline, so the joke is also true.
- A bigger URL. The sign-off is the whole point of an awareness ad. Make it readable from across a room.
Want the next experiment in your feed? Follow @elsegundotoday on X →
About this page
Labels and corrections
All ad images on this page are AI-generated concepts, not photographs, and none has run as a paid ad. Results are what we observed on this one run; another run could differ. elsegundo.xyz is an independent local commons, not an official City of El Segundo site.
Corrections. Send the URL, the claim and a supporting source through tips & corrections.