Spirit of Legendary Dodge Brothers Lives on as Dodge Launches Four New Ads in Marketing Campaign

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Jun 09, 2015, 11:00 ET

AUBURN HILLS, Mich., June 9, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Multi-dimensional campaign highlights the Dodge Brothers' passion for making great cars and how that passion and spirit still drives Dodge brand today
New spots launch this week for 2015 Dodge Dart, Durango, and Charger and Challenger Scat Packs
Ads directed by Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody
'Drive By' spot features 'No Flex Zone' song by Interscope recording artists and American hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd
View ads at youtube.com/dodge and follow the campaign on Dodge social sites

First Dodge: The spirit of the legendary Dodge Brothers lives on as Dodge launches four new ads in its marketing campaign. "First Dodge" spot goes back to the beginning to tell a story of John and Horace Dodge. Before they founded their car company and before they were even out of their teens, the first vehicle they ever built was a bicycle.

The spirit of John and Horace Dodge continues to live on as Dodge debuts four new ads in its popular Dodge Brothers marketing campaign.

The spots capture the brothers' passion for making great cars and how their vision for the future is still what drives the Dodge brand today, as exemplified by the 2015 Dodge Dart, Durango, Charger and Challenger vehicles.

"Today's Dodge vehicles have the same passion for performance as John and Horace Dodge established in the first vehicles they crafted more than one hundred years ago," said Olivier Francois, Chief Marketing Officer, FCA – Global. "The initial 'Dodge Brothers' campaign we ran last year as a celebration of Dodge's centennial was so successful that the brothers are now back in this cinematic 'season two,' beautifully directed by Academy Award winner Adrien Brody.

"Our Dodge owners have embraced this campaign as they are extremely passionate about our cars and connect with the excitement these two brothers first brought to the auto industry decades ago and continue to bring to the ads in which they star today," Francois added.

The four new cinematic spots, directed by Academy Award-winning actor Adrien Brody, begin airing this week as part of a multidimensional campaign that includes broadcast, cable, digital and social components.

The television ads will run on network and cable broadcast channels in primetime and entertainment programming as well as sports programming, including NASCAR and Major League Baseball.

In addition, consumers can follow the campaign on the Dodge brand social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Content will be aggregated with the hashtag #DodgeBrothers.

The 60-second "First Dodge" spot goes back to the beginning to tell a story of John (Tyler Bryan) and Horace (Joe Coffery) Dodge. Before they founded their car company, before they manufactured car parts, and before they were even out of their teens, the very first vehicle they ever built was a bicycle. There is also a 30-second version of the spot.

"First Dodge" creatively shows how innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit have been a part of Dodge since before the beginning of the car company. The commercial closes with an image of the 2015 Dodge Dart driving away as the voiceover says, "The 2015 Dodge Dart. The most technologically advanced vehicle in its class." It closes with supers, "Their spirit lives on" and a Dart logo.

The three additional new 30-second ads are:

"Drive By," which opens on a turn-of-the-century country club with well-to-do men and women inside enjoying high tea. We start to hear a low thumping sound coming from outside. As the sound gets louder and louder, pictures on the wall start to vibrate and everything inside begins to tremble – china cups, chandeliers, mirrors, serving trays. The scene shifts outside to see the Dodge Brothers driving along in their 2015 Dodge Durango while music blasts through the BeatsAudio system on the 8.4-inch Uconnect screen. The spot closes with "Well, there goes the country club. The 2015 Dodge Durango now with available BeatsAudio." The spot features the song "No Flex Zone" from Interscope recording artists and American hip hop duo Rae Sremmurd.
"Discovery" opens with smoke filling a frame, then dissipating to reveal 2015 Dodge Charger and Challenger Scat Packs. As the image shifts to the Dodge Brothers sitting in two old Dodge touring cars next to the Charger and Challenger in the garage, the voiceover says, "Do you know how hard it is to do a commercial with a Dodge … and not do a burnout?" The spot concludes with supers saying, "The 485-horsepower Scat Pack Challenger and Charger. Foot down since 1914."
"Morse Code" opens on a 2015 Dodge Charger. The Dodge Brothers are at the wheel, flashing their headlights in quick succession, spelling out a secret message in Morse Code. The voiceover says, "If you know Morse Code and you don't drive a Dodge, you'd be pretty offended right now", followed by a super saying, "The 485-horsepower R/T Scat Pack Charger. Their spirit lives on."

The new campaign was created in partnership with Portland, Ore.-based independent advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy.

Dodge launched the initial Dodge Brothers ads in October 2014, 100 years after John and Horace Dodge began the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company. Reaction to the campaign and the actors who portray the Dodge Brothers was so positive that the brand expanded the campaign to include more Dodge vehicle nameplates.

About the Dodge Brothers
John Francis Dodge and his brother, Horace Elgin Dodge, were born into a family of machinists and grew up in Niles, Mich., and other Michigan cities before the brothers moved to Detroit in 1886. By 1896, Horace, John and their partner, Harold Evans, began manufacturing Evans & Dodge Bicycles with new wheel bearings Horace invented. The Dodge brothers opened their own machine shop in 1901. Their first automotive customer was Ransom Eli Olds and his Olds Motor Works. The brothers then began supplying parts to Henry Ford and, by 1913, John and Horace Dodge supplied Ford with most of the components used in building his Ford Motor Company cars.

John and Horace Dodge founded the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company in 1914 and, on November 14 of that year, their first car, dubbed "Old Betsy," rolled out of their plant. Just three years later, Dodge became the fourth largest American automobile manufacturer.

John and Horace Dodge both died in 1920; John in January at the age of 55 and Horace in December at 52 years old.

About Dodge Brand
The Dodge brand is America's mainstream performance brand. With the purification of the brand and consolidation with SRT, Dodge is getting back to its performance roots with every single model it offers. The Dodge and SRT brands offer a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out within their own segments. Dodge is the "mainstream performance" brand and SRT is positioned as the "ultimate performance" halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.

From muscle cars to compact cars, minivans, crossovers and full-size SUVs, the Dodge brand's full lineup of 2015 models deliver best-in-class horsepower, class-exclusive technology, unmatched capability and a slew of cool features, such as LED headlamps, Dodge signature racetrack tail lamps, dual exhaust, 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment centers and 7-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) customizable gauge clusters, to name a few. For the 2015 model year, customers will be able to drive the new 2015 Dodge Charger and Challenger, as well as the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat. The Dodge brand lineup also includes the 2015 Dodge Dart, Durango, Grand Caravan and Journey, including the new Crossroad model, and its flagship, the Dodge Viper.

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