Vintage Ad, Best Ever Written
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Out of Warranty
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From: Houston, Republic of Texas
Vintage Ad, Best Ever Written
Cleaning out my files, I ran onto this vintage magazine ad, arguably the best ever written for the now defunct Jordan Motor Car Company, known as "Somewhere West of Laramie".
The art by Fred Cole was a vast departure from the purely illustrative artwork of the day, evoking both speed and imagination as a woman dressed in a cloche hat races a cowboy through swirling clouds - but the key was the copy that still appears in advertising texts as exemplary of what great copy can do for an ad. A little dated now, since its appearance in the Saturday Evening Post in 1923, it is still a magnificent bit of prose that represented a shift to "image" advertising rather than the contemporary recitations of cold specifications that characterized automotive ads of the day.
It reads,
A second installment showed basically the same scene with even more stylized artwork and pared-down copy to accommodate the larger image on the page.
Notice that although you don't know how many cylinders it has, or gears in the transmission, you don't care, you want one - whatever it costs. Or would have, particularly if you were a woman of some means in 1923. The Jordan Playboy may have ceased production, but its image will live in American advertising forever.
The art by Fred Cole was a vast departure from the purely illustrative artwork of the day, evoking both speed and imagination as a woman dressed in a cloche hat races a cowboy through swirling clouds - but the key was the copy that still appears in advertising texts as exemplary of what great copy can do for an ad. A little dated now, since its appearance in the Saturday Evening Post in 1923, it is still a magnificent bit of prose that represented a shift to "image" advertising rather than the contemporary recitations of cold specifications that characterized automotive ads of the day.
It reads,
SOMEWHERE west of Laramie there's a bronco-busting, steer roping girl who knows what I’m talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony, that’s a cross between greased lighting and the place where it hits, can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action when he's going high, wide and handsome. The truth is - the Playboy was built for her. Built for the lass whose face is brown with the sun when the day is done of revel and romp and race. She loves the cross of the wild and the tame. There's a savor of links about that car - of laughter and lilt and light - a hint of old loves - and saddle and quirt. It’s a brawny thing - yet a graceful thing for the sweep o' the Avenue. Step into the Playboy when the hour grows dull with things gone dead and stale. Then start for the land of real living with the spirit of the lass who rides, lean and rangy, into the red horizon of a Wyoming twilight.
Notice that although you don't know how many cylinders it has, or gears in the transmission, you don't care, you want one - whatever it costs. Or would have, particularly if you were a woman of some means in 1923. The Jordan Playboy may have ceased production, but its image will live in American advertising forever.
Luxuries such as cars were/are based on emotion and desire. I think most luxury brands have depended, and still depend, on emotional attachment and fantasy.
We don't buy cars because the ad says "It was built just for you". We're a bit more informed than that now. We know we won't be free nor sassy nor different just because we bought into the fantasy...
We don't buy cars because the ad says "It was built just for you". We're a bit more informed than that now. We know we won't be free nor sassy nor different just because we bought into the fantasy...
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