Laying Nest Eggs to Rest

Here's one more of Chase's classic nest egg ads. Like the last one we showed you, it's from 1958.


You'll find no trust or investment-management services at Chase these days. Such functions now come under the JPMorgan brand. What's more, Morgan's new logo will look a lot like the pre-merger one, sans the Chase octagon.

Gone, too, are A.G. Edwards and its nest eggs. Carmichael Lynch of Minneapolis created the Edwards campaign. You can still view some of the commercials via the work link at the agency's web site. Eventually the hard-to-control Edwards nest eggs did get tied down, as seen here. Far as we know, though, they never became securely attached to their owners.

A.G. Edwards hs now been blended into Wachovia Securities. At the time, giving up the respected Edwards brand seemed questionable. At least in the Northeast, Edwards was a better-known name. Its brokers were generally regarded as savvy and service-oriented.

Given the difficulties besetting Wachovia lately, wonder if Wachovia's marketers have any second thoughts?

Postscript: By command of the founder, the term "nest egg" never appeared in ads The Merrill Anderson Company prepared for U.S. Trust, Wachovia or other institutions. The reason, of course, was that Chase had made the term its own. But the founder had another explanation: "Chicken farmers can't afford to leave real eggs in the nests. They use fake eggs. Nest eggs are worthless!"