{"id":19630,"date":"2021-09-01T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T00:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/?p=19630"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:12:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T00:12:59","slug":"how-hanna-a-dashboard-hula-girl-became-arcos-spokesdoll-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advertisingweek.com\/aw360\/news\/how-hanna-a-dashboard-hula-girl-became-arcos-spokesdoll-star\/19630\/","title":{"rendered":"How Hanna, a Dashboard Hula Girl, Became ARCO\u2019s Spokesdoll Star"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Heather Taylor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a special place in Laurie Scott\u2019s<\/a> heart for Hanna, ARCO\u2019s enthusiastic dashboard hula girl spokesdoll.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Scott, a copywriter with a wide background in writing for major brands, describes Hanna as her first-born. Hanna was one of many firsts for Scott. It was her first job in advertising at ad agency RPA after years of working in the TV production world, the first campaign she sold, and the first time she was able to write for a character as unique and special as Hanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the many creatives that worked on this campaign, three former RPA creatives \u2014 Scott, who was instrumental in helping develop Hanna\u2019s voice through copy, Stephen Chow, former creative director of ARCO, and former RPA junior art director Patrick Schrader \u2014 shared with me their stories and memories of bringing Hanna to life<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Picking a Brand Mascot for ARCO<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Chow recalls conversations for ARCO\u2019s first brand icon<\/a> starting as early as 2015. RPA had been slowly expanding the gasoline brand\u2019s messaging throughout the years with former VP, Strategic Planning Director Scott Jensen working alongside strategic and creative teams to build the case for a brand mascot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cARCO\u2019s previous work had always been on the more humor side for the category but they never had a brand mascot,\u201d says Chow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before Hanna, however, an alternative initial concept was created for ARCO. It was\u2026 one of those wacky, waving, inflatable tube men?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yep, that\u2019s exactly how Schrader remembers it. Schrader worked for a year at RPA as a Junior Art Director before production began on the campaign. He recalls that the concept of an inflatable tube man mascot<\/a>, now a bit of funny behind the scenes trivia, would have been deemed \u201ctooooo weird.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was so weird, fun, and out there that it would have been awesome to actually drop one at ARCOs all over,\u201d Schrader admits. \u201cAlas, that was a little too ridiculous for a gas station brand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would be a less ridiculous, and more fitting, character to advertise gas? Schrader had seen convenience store chain ampm experience success with their offbeat brand mascot Toomgis<\/a>. He felt confident that, alongside Scott, they could pursue that route in a fun, interesting way that other competitors had yet to explore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2016, the concept of Hanna was created, and Scott was briefed to work on the project. Prior to Hanna, the most recent ARCO TV commercials were all set at the gas station. These spots involved puns or dream sequences. There were no spokespersons or recurring characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanna was about to change everything for ARCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bringing Hanna to Life<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Scott recalls that the creative team spent about a month concepting and developing various campaign ideas around the idea that you get more than what you pay for at ARCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe landed on the dashboard hula doll as the embodiment of the fun and adventures made possible by a reliable car and cash in your pocket,\u201d Scott says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanna\u2019s personality, as Scott describes her, is enthusiastic, charming, clever, and innocent but knowledgeable within a very narrow tranche. Sometimes, Hanna also reveals she has a slightly competitive nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanna is all about getting the most out of every experience, including filling up at the gas station. She is quite adventurous, traveling to all sorts of places and trying new things because of the quality she gets and money she saves at ARCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanna\u2019s voice was developed through countless iterations of scripts. Her adventures, and reactions, were carefully selected to fit the ARCO brand and the campaign\u2019s footprint. It was necessary that Hanna\u2019s experience was in line with her personality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A balance needed to be carefully struck in knowing about her own world and learning about new things. Often this happened the hard way, as Scott uses the examples of Hanna dealing with setbacks during her adventures. For example, she might get sunburned at the beach or end a mule ride with a nibbled grass skirt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott says that one of the most difficult aspects in writing for the character was pinning down her name. The creative team spent hours on baby name websites to pick out the perfect name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe walked a fine line, trying to find a name befitting one of the most quintessentially American of car accessories without straying into cultural appropriation,\u201d Scott says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hanna Makes Her Debut<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By 2017, the right creative was on board to support the campaign. Focus groups had been conducted with overwhelming positive feedback about Hanna. The seven spots that would run for the first two years of the campaign were filmed in January 2017. ARCO\u2019s first commercials starring Hanna made their debut on March 27, 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Internally, everyone at RPA was very excited about the campaign. Scott was delighted that the audience response was so positive and that the new campaign, and Hanna, helped shift perception of the ARCO brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving Hanna as the spokesdoll was very liberating,\u201d Chow says. \u201cHanna opened up the idea of being able to go to more places with the reliability of Top Tier gas as well as ARCO\u2019s value propositions. It allowed us to move the story beyond the technical aspects of the product. We can tell stories and share the joy of getting to go more places from the perspective of a dashboard hula girl.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\u2019s a Real Spokesdoll!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Is Hanna a real dashboard hula girl? Yes! She even bobbles, according to Scott. Hanna\u2019s look was developed alongside the talented team at Legacy Effects<\/a>. Their team crafted and hand-painted fifteen different versions of Hanna.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former RPA art director Laurel Lunsford<\/a> designed Hanna\u2019s outfits. Hanna is known for going all-in for every experience, so the creative team wanted to make sure she wore a different, activity-appropriate outfit for every destination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was an interesting challenge, trying to change the costume while grounding it in the original design so there wouldn\u2019t be any confusion as to whether this was the same character,\u201d Scott says. \u201cLaurel did a fantastic job of creating solutions that worked on every level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legacy Effects not only helped craft all seven of the dressed-up figurines. They made a poseable \u201cstunt double\u201d for each one, allowing the creatives at RPA to have a lot of fun with the montage images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wouldn\u2019t you know it, but a member of the Legacy Effects team was also an accomplished hula dancer! Scott says she was gracious enough to dress up and demonstrate a variety of moves and pose for the team. These reference shots helped ensure Hanna\u2019s pose and costume were authentic for her character design.<\/p>\n\n\n

https:\/\/youtu.be\/M9pGkBlNusg<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving Forward with Hanna<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After the campaign\u2019s initial two-year run wrapped up, it was time to refresh Hanna\u2019s campaign. However, by then Scott had shifted to work on a different client. She was since left RPA to go in-house and hasn\u2019t been involved in the campaign since its early days.<\/p>\n\n\n