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Hal Riney, The Man Who Captured Saturn's Spirit

In the spirit of celebrating Hal Riney’s life, I want to share our perspective on Hal’s contribution to this special brand called Saturn.

Hal will go down in our history books as one of the founders of the Saturn brand. Yes, many people came together to make this car company great; UAW members, Saturn team members, retailers, suppliers and so many others. However, it takes special talent to go the next step and create a brand message that could resonate with everyone in America.

Hal found the voice of Saturn; he found the magic that began to capture the hearts and minds of the consumer. He used to say, “my job is easy, I just tell your stories.” That’s a very humble statement. We know better. It took creative genius to be able to tell those stories in a way that captured our spirit and portrayed it to the American public. We will never forget Hal Riney and his contribution to this brand. Great people leave a legacy... he left, with us, wisdom that we continue to leverage to this day. Thank you, Hal.

(Note: Hal Riney, founder and leader of the advertising agency that created all of the original Saturn ads, passed away on March 24, 2008 at age 75. For more information about Mr. Riney, go to the Advertising Hall of Fame web site.

Here are links to some of Hal Riney's Saturn ads:

10 Comments

Comment by Slammedsl1 on April 8, 2008 at 12:36pm: R.I.P.

Thanks for all you did

Comment by Jill on April 8, 2008 at 4:35pm: I would really like copies of the ads. Can't find them anywhere!

Comment by MBSATURN on April 8, 2008 at 5:16pm: The Hal Riney era of SATURN advertising will never be duplicated. Those ads are truly classics, and SATURN hasn't had any that touched people like that since.

Comment by Scott Peterkin on April 9, 2008 at 6:58am: I never read about Ad agencie until I became familiar with Hal's firm. I found myself reading about his accounts whenever I could. He had a no-hype approach to his subjects that always appealed to me. I though, if someone is having to work at selling me a car, could it really be as good as they were making it out to be? Thanks - I'd rather hear about a product from a neighbor or a friend. Although I never met them, both Hal and the folks at Spring Hill were my friends.

Comment by Rob on April 10, 2008 at 3:45pm: MBSaturn, you are so correct. And to this day, they still say alot about Saturn.

Comment by Candy on April 14, 2008 at 8:27pm: Jill and other Saturn friends, While I agree that Hal Riney was magical and developed some tremendous concepts, I believe his greatest talent was his ability to get others to tell a real story. The story was the Saturn story. He had a strong, creative team who used superb Saturn team members to make the early Saturn story so successful. I know. I was involved in just about every commercial shoot in Spring Hill AND when we recruited team members to go on location. I hope all of us NEVER forget the importance of the Spring Hill manufacturing team in making Hal's great ideas become reality. And, if you ever want to know more about "Squeakers" or the "letter to the people building my car" or "painting the fence" or "happy feet" etc., etc. just ask.

Comment by Scott Peterkin on April 14, 2008 at 9:26pm: Candy, Your comment about the importance of the Spring Hill facility is one my family also shares. After many years of flawless operation from our 1995 SW2 (we were so impressed with that car that I found out about a worker at the Spring Hill facility and sent him an industrial grade wrench to say thanks for the fine assembly job) we were one of the first purchasers of the 2002 Vue. When we picked up the car, we gave our salesperson yellow roses The flowers, our thanks to her to mark our second purchase which she assisted with. We wrote letters to the corporation about how satisfied we were with their new product and the sales process - words we stand by to this day as both cars continue exceed our expectations. Warm regards Scott (who spells better at then end of the day than at its start!)

Comment by Ron Kerns on April 15, 2008 at 5:12pm: As an advertising/marketing student in the late 1980s, Hal Riney's work was certainly studied and "put on a pedestal"....
WIth regards to the early Saturn work, I know I have some VERY early Saturn marketing materials and car catalogs. I collect that kind of stuff.
But, today? Saturn? While it started out as a very innovative line of cars, today it's simply become just another division within GM....(i.e. a sky is just a rebadged solstice, or is a solstice a sky?....an outlook is just another Acadia or Enclave....)

perhaps someday, they can regain their "individuality"....

Comment by MBSATURN on April 16, 2008 at 3:34pm: In 1995 Hal Riney and Assoc. sent out a questionnaire looking for ad ideas from sales consultants about their customers. They were looking for drivers who:

• had had multiple SATURNs (5 at that time with more to follow)
• had an accident with one
• got the most speeding tickets
• had encouraged co-workers to buy SATURNs
• owners who had gone to work selling what they purchased
• they also found it humorous that we lived in Spring Hill Florida

This entire questionnaire described Theo and I. She was selected to go to Spring Hill as the person with the most speeding tickets in a SATURN. She spent a week in Nashville/Spring Hill doing her photo shoot standing next to a red SC2 with a Spring Hill TN police officer holding a fistful of tickets! The shoot took a few extra days because they were looking for just the right amount of clouds over the beautiful Tennessee sky.
She was also there when did the commercial for the “sales consultant that married his customer” and the Insurance agent commercial with the rebar all around the SL2 illustrating its safety advantage. All of those commercials came to fruition but hers did not, GM legal decided that maybe they should not portray all SATURN owners as speed crazed lunatics!
We still have the ad board copy they sent along with the photos. She had a blast and got to meet some wonderful people.

Comment by Jim on April 16, 2008 at 4:22pm: The video Spring in Springhill is what I'll remember. A truly Hal Riney classic. A keep sake for all the Saturn team members who helped build the plant.