ANTIQUE ADS
Mesmerizing Prose
Artwork by Fred Cole; lyrics by Ned Jordan
BY ED HEYS
ADS COURTESY OF JIM HINCKLEY
For an industry that spends A LOT
of time, effort and finances to convince the public to buy its products,
few car manufacturers succeeded as did
Jordan Motor Car Company. Ned Jordan,
company owner and chief copywriter,
infused intense emotion into his ads:
“SOME day in June, when happy hours
abound, a wonderful girl and a wonderful
boy will leave their friends in a shower
of rice—and start to roam.
“Then life will surely slip its tether
and youth will be full of the promise of
happy days to come.
“Give them a Jordan Blue Boy, the
bright sky overhead, the green turf flying by—and just beyond the hill a thousand miles of open road—then a quiet
inn for dinner.
“There is a pride of ownership in the
Jordan that reveals a love for things that
really count. It’s like old money—old
treasures—good taste without display,
and judgment that is rare.”
And included in nearly every “best of”
“SOMEWHERE west of Laramie
there’s a broncho-busting, steer-roping
girl who knows what I’m talking about.
“She can tell you what a sassy pony,
that’s a cross between greased lightning
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.”
The “West of Laramie” ad was produced in various configurations of text;
we’re partial to the album version above.
Jordan commissioned various artists to
illustrate his dramatic text; for these two
1923 ads he chose Fred Cole. Cole, in turn,
produced lyrical and suggestive imagery
that perfectly matched Jordan’s writing
style. (We’re eager to learn more about
the artist, if you have information.)
During Jordan Motor Car Company’s
brief existence, it was endowed with a
mesmerizing marriage of advertising
prose and evocative illustration.
list of advertising and copywriting is:
42 HEMMINGS MOTOR NEWS • JUNE 2009
