Archive photos: 50 years of billboards and marketing

Among some of the lesser heralded stories in advance of the team’s 50th anniversary is the effort the franchise has undertaken to draw and retain notice amidst a crowded sports space in a region in which there is no shortage of things to do. While winning cures so much of what ails a team, it’s still interesting to see the marketing platform evolve from an era in which NHL hockey was a brand new novelty to the area, through the growing pains of the 1970’s and 80’s, through Wayne Gretzky and ultimately, after his departure, to the Serious Hockey outreach and subsequent growing pains in the 1990’s, to a more modern new media push over the last decade. (Come to think of it, there have been quite a few “growing pains,” prior to 2012.)

Here are emblems of the organization’s attempts to brand itself in the media capital of the world during rising and falling moments in the Kings’ competitive history.

1960’s

LAX_CBLLAKings_1968

LAX_CBLLAKings_1969

1970’s

LAX_CBLLAKings_1970

LAX_CBLLAKings_1971

LAX_CBLLAKings_1973

LAX_CBLLAKings_1974

LAX_CBLLAKings_1976

1980’s

LAX_CBLLAKings_1980

LAX_CBLLAKings_1982

1228-0088

LAX_CBLKingsMillerCoors_1989

LAX_CBLMillerKings_1989

1990’s

LAX_C3SLosAngelesKings_1996

LAX_C3SLAKingsHockey_1996

LAX_C3SLAKings_1996

LAK-0041-0013-0007

LAK-0041-0013-0030

2000’s

LAX_1006_CBLLAKings1_20090925

LAX_3081_CBLLAKings1_20091023

LAX_2205_C3SLAKings1_20101130

LAX_0696_CDDLAKingsCongratulations1_20091111

2010’s

0087_CDDLAKings2

LAX_3081_CBLLAKings2_20111017

0879_ADDLAKings2

1032_ABLLAKings1

1004_CBLLAKings1

20140503_LAKings_Playoff_456px_x_184px_Duck_Digital_508679

NYC_west_34th_Street_CDBPENN_PLAZA11_20140606

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