Wyoming Department of State Parks and Cultural Resources
Somewhere West of Laramie: An Advertising Legend
By Phil Roberts, Department of History, University of Wyoming
"Somewhere west of Laramie there's a bronco-busting, steer-roping girl who
knows what I'm talking about." So began a 1923 magazine advertisement that
became legendary.
National advertising firms use Wyoming scenes as backdrops to pitch everything
from yogurt to beer, even though the products are neither manufactured in Wyoming
nor sold in any great quantity in the state. Ad agencies use Wyoming because they
know there is an emotional dimension to advertising that motivates consumers to
buy a particular product. This dimension doesn't rely on price, quality or even
special features of the product. Image sells the product.
Consumers identify with the myths of the West and Wyoming. Ads incorporating these
images sell merchandise. Known as "image advertising," the variety was
unknown until 1923 when it was "invented" to sell a car. Indeed, the
whole idea of image advertising was inspired "somewhere west of Laramie"
in 1923.
Previously, car ads concentrated on practicalities*data on engine size, the number
of forward gears, and special features such as side-curtains.
In 1916, Edward S. Jordan borrowed $200,000 and started an automobile factory
in Cleveland, Ohio. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the Wisconsin-born entrepreneur
believed he could make a substantial profit from a small volume of sales. In his
plant, he assembled his cars using parts made by other manufacturers.
Like the dozens of small companies making cars in those days, Jordan faced stiff
competition from major automobile makers. It was hardly a contest. The mass-produced
Ford, for instance, sold for about $500 while Jordan barely could cover costs
by selling his models for five times that amount. His favorite model, the Jordan
"Playboy," was an undistinguished roadster, in features much the same
as any other then on the market.
Sales flattened out in 1922 and Jordan, worried that his sales strategy might
have been in error, decided to travel to the West Coast to relax and, perhaps,
rethink his approach. How could his company survive in the face of stiff competition
from dozens of other makers?
The 41-year-old carmaker and a colleague from the company rode a Union Pacific
passenger train. As the train was passing through southern Wyoming, Jordan glanced
out the window. There, in the waning sunset, he saw a beautiful young woman riding
her horse alongside the train for a short distance, as if to race the locomotive.
The sight so impressed Jordan that he turned to his companion and asked where
they were. "Somewhere west of Laramie," was the reply.
Throughout the rest of the trip, Jordan thought about the incident and the image
of the fast horse and beautiful young woman racing the train. Back home, he sketched
out an advertisement for his car using the phrase, "Somewhere west of Laramie."
The copy made no mention of the car's price, its engine size or quality. The drawing,
in abstract style, showed a young woman on a horse racing against the Jordan Playboy
roadster.
The copy read: "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 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 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 ad first ran in the Saturday Evening Post in June
1923. Soon, sales of the Jordan Playboy roadster increased markedly and the company
ran the ad in other mass-circulation magazines. Because of the ad, the Jordan
sold well during the middle 1920s. The advertisement's style and success did not
go unnoticed. Soon, other automakers copied the form of "image advertising."
Unfortunately, the firm failed in 1931, one of the numerous auto company victims
of the Great Depression. Jordan turned to consulting work and, later, wrote a
column for a car magazine. When he died in 1958, the New York Times obituary listed
the ad as Jordan's main accomplishment. "Its approach and colorful language
set the pattern for modern automobile advertising," the obituary noted. Jordan
and his automobile faded into obscurity, but the advertisement became legendary.
In 1945, readers of an advertising trade journal, Printer's Ink magazine, voted
it the third greatest advertisement of all time. Even today, advertising people
point to "Somewhere west of Laramie" as one of the best ever produced.
(Phil Roberts, a native of Lusk, is associate professor of history at the University
of Wyoming. He teaches the history of Wyoming and the West, legal, environmental
and public history. He is one of the writers of the Wyoming Almanac. The historical
information provided in the Buffalo Bones articles is provided by the Wyoming
State Archives and Wyoming State Historical Society.)