The Platinum Egg 2007: Anna Qvennerstedt.
Anna Qvennerstedt was born without a clip-on clown nose in October of 1971 in Jönköping. Her mother was a Swedish teacher, her father a landscape architect and industrial designer. From her earliest days, Anna’s parents followed in her footsteps. “Listen carefully to the child and understand her worldview,” is a central tenet of their preferred Regio Emilia approach to education and creativity.... By the time she finished school, Anna was eager to follow in her father’s footsteps and train as an industrial designer. Following a year-long design adventure in London, she grew homesick, came back to Sweden and began a copywriting course at RMI-Berghs. After graduation in 1994, she started at Garbergs. In 1997, she took the next step, helping to found TBWA Stockholm, where she remained a partner until 2004, when Forsman & Bodenfors came knocking. During her years at TBWA Stockholm, she wrote the Golden Egg-winning Teenage Phrase Book for the Swedish government’s Alcohol Committee. The brochure was a trove of information for parents needing to talk honestly about alcohol with their children, and is still sent out to parents around the country with a child who has just turned thirteen. She was Board Chair at F&B for many years, and when the agency merged with global agency KBS, she became Global Chief Creative Officer. She never stopped writing, however. Her drive to understand and position brands in ways that help maintain a society without clip-on clown noses lives on. H&M, Systembolaget, pharmaceutical retailer Apoteket and Volvo are just a few of the satisfied companies which, like Anna’s mother and father, have had the good sense to listen to what she has to say.