When Subaru first began manufacture in the US for the Legacy for model year `1990 they hired the advertising firm from Portland that produced the "Just Do It" campaign for Portland's most famous company, Nike. Their slogan for the Subaru campaign was "What to Drive".
Intentionally ironicis a phrase forever associated with Portland, and the word
hipster was being ressurrected from the 50's to apply to the 90s culture centered on the Pacific Northwest.
Wieden+Kennedy (W+K) founded April 1, 1982 and aired three television commercials for Nike that were aired during the New York City Marathon in October 1982. W+K's turbulent relationship with Subaru is the basis of Randall Rothenberg's 1995 book
Where the Suckers Moon: The Life and Death of an Advertising Campaign.
While this advertising style worked well for Nike, it didn't sell the Legacy. The Legacy was Subaru's bid to finlly move out of their image of
"cheap and ugly" achieving 66 mpg . Subaru's parent company had fostered this image over two decades and was now trying to challenge German sedans and popular Japanese sedans like the Honda Accord.
Read the ad and watch the commercial that sparked the career of a young
Jeremy Davies reference
Jeremy Davies wikipedia page
Now, 30 years later, I kind of like the in your face style of the ads. And it still doesn't make sense that Honda Accord with no AWD outsells the Subaru Legacy by 684% in 2022.
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