Years ago, at Wieden, we pitched for Porsche.
Actually we pitched twice and lost both.
Then we pitched for them at R/GA and lost that.
Which means I am the Porsche problem.
Makes sense …
Anyway, the first time we pitched, Sam – one of the creatives, along with Ryan – wrote the best positioning line I’ve ever read.
I can’t say was it was because I don’t want someone to steal his work, but it was one of those moments where you go, “Fuck me, that’s amazing”.
It was so good it conflicted Porsche.
They didn’t like our work at all but wanted to give us the business because of the power of the line. Then ‘international politics’ got in the way and we got told to take a hike.
Or a drive.
Though I acknowledge that I probably didn’t help matters by asking them why they sponsored golf when that was the antithesis of what Porsche were about. Hahahaha.
Anyway, as part of the campaign, Sam wrote a line in the TV script that I also thought was wonderful.
One I am OK with sharing because it isn’t sooooo specific to Porsche. It was …
“Ribbons of road draped over highlands”
God I love it.
I love it so much.
It’s so bloody evocative and – for me – captures the perfect balance between the quiet determination of nature surrounding a thin line of tarmac that has been gently placed over it and the loud performance of a car that’s hurtling along it at breakneck speed.
Torturing and teasing each other.
Both trying to dominate.
A game of cat and mouse.
The fine line between respect and ridicule.
I say all this because I recently came across a picture of a road that I feel this was written for,
Where we were writing for China, this road is in America – California to be more precise – but it is perfect all the same.
Which is why if someone at Porsche reads this and wants to get their brand back to the stature it once had – rather than this ‘fast luxury’ superficialness that it currently seems happy to communicate … let me know, because have Sam, Ryan and I got a brand idea for you.
