Gilmore Girls: A Brand I Keep Coming Back To

I’ve watched Gilmore Girls at different stages of my life, as a teenager, while working, and in those in-between years when you’re still figuring things out. And strangely, the show kept changing a little, because I was changing too.

The first time, it was Rory.

The books. Chilton. Yale.

The boys.

The ambition.

The occasional bad decision that felt far too real.

Later, it was Lorelai and Rory, a mother and daughter who somehow made the generation gap look less like a gap and more like a conversation. They were friends, family, rivals, each other’s biggest critics and, mostly, each other’s home.

And now, with an advertising brain, I can't help but look at the show as one beautifully constructed brand.

Stars Hollow isn't just a setting. It's a brand universe.

Lorelai isn't just a character. She's a personality.

Rory isn't just a protagonist. She's a consumer journey.

She starts in Stars Hollow, dreams of Chilton, reaches Yale, falls in and out of love, gets distracted, makes mistakes, finds ambition and loses it again, essentially doing what most of us do while growing up…

Even the smallest details became brand assets.

Luke's diner.

Friday night dinners, Town meetings, Coffee, Books, The Dragonfly Inn, The Stars Hollow eccentricities.

Nothing felt randomly placed. Everything built the world.

And perhaps that's the advertising lesson I take from Gilmore Girls: a strong brand isn't remembered because you told people what it was. It's remembered because you made them feel what it was.

Gilmore Girls premiered in 2000. More than two decades later, people still have opinions about Rory, favourite boyfriends, favourite episodes, favourite books, and, inevitably, whether Jess was the right answer.

That isn't just fandom.

That's brand love.

And maybe that's why I still return to Stars Hollow.

Not because I want to escape the world.

Because, for a little while, that world feels like mine.

So, tell me…what did Gilmore Girls become for you?

A character, a comfort show, a coming-of-age story, or your own little Stars Hollow?