SCULPTING FORD'S STORY
Façonner l'histoire de Ford
Ford, l’incontournable constructeur automobile américain, s’est imposé comme le pionnier du secteur dès 1908 grâce à la Ford T, un modèle de voiture révolutionnaire. C’est ce riche héritage et cette longue histoire que la marque espère désormais promouvoir auprès du grand public grâce au travail de Ted Ryan, le célèbre archiviste qu’elle vient d’embaucher. Petite leçon de marketing avec la journaliste Phoebe Wall Howard.
Ford Motor Co. has hired away CocaCola’s image historian, who will essentially sculpt Ford’s story and seek to reframe how America and the world think of the carmaker. In recent weeks, Ford brought aboard Ted Ryan, an Atlanta native who swore after 21 years of doing what he loves that he’d never leave Coca-Cola or Georgia. “Ford is the only brand in the world I would have left Coca-Cola to go to,” he said.
COLLECTING ARTIFACTS
2. It goes beyond the story of Henry Ford, who left the family farm in the 1870s near
1. to hire away ici, embaucher (en faisant quitter son poste précédent) / to seek, sought, sought to chercher à, avoir pour objectif de / to reframe ici, refaçonner / to bring aboard ici, embaucher / to swear, swore, sworn jurer / brand marque. 2. to collect rassembler / artifact objet (historique) / beyond au-delà de, outre / Dearborn to apprentice at the Michigan Car Co., a railcar manufacturer in Detroit. Soon after, he devised the first mass production of cars in America. Ryan will collect physical and digital artifacts, help with communications, marketing, product development and weave the legacy of the company into the narrative of where it’s headed.
3. “If you have history on your side, how do you make it relevant? How do you make people care?” said Jennifer Flake, executive director of communications at Ford. “This is what Ted does successfully.”
to apprentice être apprenti / railcar voiture (train) / manufacturer constructeur / to devise imaginer / to weave, wove, woven tisser; ici, intégrer / legacy legs, héritage / narrative histoire / to head se diriger. 3. to have sth on one's side avoir qch en sa faveur / relevant digne d'intérêt, pertinent / to care ici, s'intéresser.
A GLOBAL REPUTATION
4. Ryan has a global reputation, and he is a past chairman of the business archives section of the Society of American Archivists. Before working for Coca-Cola, he worked at the Atlanta History Center. He won an Emmy as an associate producer and researcher for a documentary on minor league baseball in the South.
5. “What I do is organize, disseminate and preserve the history of a corporation,” Ryan said. “I’m reading book after book on Ford now. At its core, we preserve the materials to
4. global mondial, international / chairman président, directeur / society association / Emmy prix récompensant chaque année les meilleurs professionnels et émissions de la télévision américaine. 5. core coeur, centre /