• by Karl Greenberg , July 11, 2013

The Dodge brand is pitching the 2013 Dodge Dart to multicultural urban Millennials and borrowing a pit bull from Fiat to do it. 

The Spanish/English ad campaign via Houston and Los Angeles-based Hispanic agency Lopez-Negrete Communications, features the artist whose handle is the name of the above dog breed that's about 80% teeth. Pitbull, whose Clear Channel Media and Entertainment tour last year was Dodge-sponsored, composed the music and calls out “¡Dale!” (“Let’s do this!”) in the spots, per the Chrysler unit. 

Tim Kuniskis, president and CEO, Dodge Brand, said urban multicultural consumers (think North Brooklyn) are the demographic group that is most apt to want the car. “The compact car segment is the biggest and most competitive in the automotive industry, and Millennials are a major driver of the segment growth,” he said in a statement. 

Dodge says the first ad in the Hispanic campaign is a multicultural variation of the latest “How to Change Cars Forever” (“Cómo hacer un auto que cambie todo”) 30- and 60-second ad. The spot is adapted from a June spot under the Dart campaign that launched last year. Pitbull is integrated into the creative, per the automaker. The :60 spot will air July 18 during the “Premios Juventud” youth awards show on the Univision Network. 

Right now, there's another ad -- a 30-second spot airing in Spanish -- that will launch in English later this week. That ad also features Pitbull. One of the spots takes the accelerated auto design back-and-forth motif with its frenetic pace that leads to the final Dart car, and applies it to Pitbull’s back-and-forth to come up with a new track. Tag: “New Rules.”

Olivier Francois, top dog (okay, CMO) at Chrysler Group LLC, says:  “Pitbull is a great fit for the Dodge Dart as both are hip, innovative, and relevant to Millennials, yet also have crossover appeal.”

“If you want to know where future compact-car buyers are, just look at the audience at a Pitbull concert -- it’s cross-cultural and our advertising must connect emotionally with these consumers.” said Juan F. Torres, head of multicultural advertising at Chrysler. “Millennials are driving the compact segment growth and Hispanics, in particular, over-index as compact car buyers. In two years, nearly half of the segment’s target demographic, and a majority of the population within 10 of the largest cities in the U.S., will be multicultural. The Dart is already attracting young consumers, and we’ll continue to develop advertising with a multicultural cadence that connects with this group.”

The company says the ads will air on national Spanish-language and bilingual networks and also on Aspire and BET this month. They are also on YouTube.