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Brand Film

Volvo Cars

Song of the Open Road

A luxury sedan launch that opened with a poet, not a car.

Walt Whitman’s words overlaid across a nighttime road.
Walt Whitman’s words meet the open road.

Selected work

03 assets
The full S90 launch film.
A Volvo S90 on an open road through a desert landscape.
The Volvo S90 in the desert landscape.
A figure standing beside a burning tree in the Volvo launch film.
A burning tree interrupts the journey.

Project Overview

Every business sedan ad looks like the last one — boardrooms, slow-motion shoes, drone shots over highways. Volvo's idea of luxury is closer to inspiration than indulgence. So we cast accordingly.

For the S90 launch we made a brand film about a writer grappling with creative block, set against Walt Whitman's "Song of the Open Road."

Inspiration, freedom, self-discovery — the values already sitting inside Volvo's "Our Idea of Luxury" positioning, finally given something to be about.

Client
Volvo Cars
Year
2016
Role
Art Director / Creative

Agency / Studio

Grey New York

Directed by

Niclas Larsson

Team

  • Matt O'Rourke
  • Denise O'Bleness
  • Neil Maclean