A Means of Expression

My journey into branding and advertising began in the basement of a college library. Summers were hot in my home, Kentucky, but the library was air conditioned. I spent hours in junior high poring over vintage Look and LIFE magazines.

I worked my way sequentially across decades of the late 20th Century and was arrested by the ads and how their language and tone differed depending on the era.

Then, in the 1980s, a particular page hit me. It was bold. To me in my context, exotic. Beautiful. Different. Simple. European.

It was a SAAB ad.

The car itself cut a unique profile, but the messaging got at the heart of the SAAB sensibility:

A Means of Expression. A Means of Transportation.

Just what I needed. A statement. An escape. It made a lasting connection. Differentiation amid a sea of manufacturers complete and just for me. It all raised questions. How do people do this? How do they so intimately and beautifully create this hook into me that creates an instant vision?

That hook and the promise of leaving my home state to see the world would begin less than a decade later as my agency career began in Minneapolis. My purchase of a SAAB took much longer. It happened this May. I drove my 2011 9-3 back from Phoenix – a slice of my younger self’s aspiration – vision – fulfilled. It’s really fast.