Come up for air.

     This campaign is over twenty years old, though I believe it not only still works but is actually still working.

     Running about a half dozen years in the eighties, Asheville, it will lift your spirit was the first fully choreographed campaign after a room tax established the funding source for marketing the city to a traveling public.

     In television commercials under the Spirit tagline, writer George Plimpton spoke of a creative environment that attracted George Vanderbilt, George Gershwin, Henry Ford and Thomas Edison and inexorably continues to inspire. Print ads, shown here, worked against a profoundly simple creative strategy that positioned Asheville as a city of sophisticated charm within a fly-cast of deep and pristine nature.

     The visitor upsurge this work triggered set off a jazzy up-building of accommodations of all kinds, from brocaded bed and breakfasts to Victorian inns to glassy hotels. More importantly, the campaign brought to our city travelers who felt at home here.

     I believe we are still sharing the general acknowledgment of what this place is about as expressed in this beautifully articulated work.

View PDF Originals:
Come Up for Air
You Can Come Home Again

Creative direction and writing: Jay Fields
Art direction: Chris Schlegel