“Just be yourself.” “You do you girl.” “Never let anyone dull your sparkle.” “Be whoever the *expletive* you wanna be and screw the haters!!!” These are just a few of the many phrases I’ve heard in my life extolling the value of individuality. Some of them have even been told directly to me, as much as they mean in the real world.
Here in America, we love to venerate the individual: the rugged maverick who blazes their own trail and refuses to just follow the leader. However, as much as this is true, we also value conformity, and those that buck the norm are just as likely to be ostracized as they are to be celebrated. This is a paradox that has been documented to the point of cliche in innumerable movies, books, and other media, but it’s still true to this day. Different doesn’t always mean beloved, or successful.
And in the automotive world, it’s hard to find an example of a company that banked on being ‘different’ harder than Saturn. It was their entire brand image for their first decade. And like so many others, poor Saturn wound up trying to conform when their uniqueness wasn’t exactly what people wanted, to predictable results. But with this Ion, we can at least admire the effort.