Just after the turn of the millennium, Björn Ståhl became probably the first person in Sweden to be titled a “creative director”. Around the same time, Mölndal started promoting itself as “The Creative City”. Ståhl, who was born in Mölndal in 1962 and grew up there, sees no connection. In any case, he deserved the title after all those years churning out copy. The urge to write had kicked in when he was still a schoolboy. After finishing school, he travelled round the world, took odd jobs close to home (cleaning machines at the Ballerina biscuit factory, operating the loop-the-loop at an amusement park)...Read more. His urge to write never flagged – especially after a teacher at the local adult ed centre told him about the rewards of writing ad copy. Big money! He scored his first copywriting job at an agency in Gothenburg (an even more creative city that’s only four minutes from Mölndal). Big money remained elusive. He wasn’t even getting a wage until he came up with a slogan for one of the agency’s most important clients, a recruitment agency: “Your change is our business.” (Ståhl smiles awkwardly, much as he did a few months later when he – the agency’s new, up-and-coming star! – resigned after being accepted at Berghs advertising school in Stockholm.) After Berghs, he moved to Helsingborg because his girlfriend was going to design school in Copenhagen. At Aaseby Annonsbyrå he won his first Silver Egg (a radio spot for a casino in Marienlyst, Denmark: mantalksnonstopwithoutevenpausingtobreathe about everything he's bought since winning big at the roulette table). But Stockholm once again sang its siren song. It’s where everything was happening (except, of course, for Marienlyst). At Leo Burnett, his team won Campaign of the Month in the ad mag Resumé for their Hyundai commercial (James Bond’s Q complains because the car doesn’t have a machine gun). Lowe Brindfors got in touch. The Golden Eggs started rolling in. But Ståhl wanted to keep growing. He asked for a transfer to Lowe’s London office. His experience there won him the creative director position at Lowe People in Stockholm. After a few years, Ogilvy wanted him as their Executive Creative Director (with two ordinary, garden-variety CDs working under him). When Ogilvy was reorganized as Ingo, the roulette wheel began spinning in earnest. Legendary campaigns for the Swedish Tourist Association and Burger King earned him and his team two Black Pencils from D&AD in London. No, he didn’t move back to London. He was again busy travelling the world, this time to hold together the parent company’s network. All told, he was at Ogilvy/Ingo for nineteen years. By 2022, he had burned his already black pencils at both ends for as long as he could take it. He was burnt out (talkingwithoutbreathing, a ballerina with a clubfoot, dangling from the top of the coaster loop). He was thinking of quitting. He falls silent, then sums up his career: basically, he has a run of luck every four or five years … From an observer’s perspective, it looks like he’s lucky again. A hot, new agency and elected to the Platinum Academy.

– L.F.