automotive

The Dodge Brothers Are Back In Town. Adrien Brody Tells Them What To Do


It's not exactly John Francis and Horace Elgin (the original brothers Dodge), but idealized versions that Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) introduced last year to tout todays' version of the eponymous brand. The brothers are back to the future again in a new ad campaign that touts the Dodge Durango, Challenger, Charger and Dart.  

As FCA has done for its five brands (if you don’t count SRT) many times in its relatively short history, the campaign involves a famous guy, though in this case he’s behind the camera. Actor Adrien Brody, who won an Oscar for his starring turn in “The Pianist” directs the TV ads, which form the core of the campaign, via AOR Portland, Ore.-based Wieden+Kennedy.

The automaker says the four TV spots will run on network and cable prime time and entertainment programming, plus NASCAR and Major League Baseball. 

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The spots juxtapose present with past to tout Dodge performance and attitude. A 60-second anthem ad “First Dodge” shows the brothers as kids who decide to one-up the boy lording it over everyone on the block with his new bicycle. They go into the workshop and build a motorbike, which they apparently actually did.  At the end of the spot, the motorbike is replaced by the 2015 Dodge Dart.  

A second spot also puts modern Dodge back in the day, at a 1900s country club at afternoon tea. The ground starts shaking and things begin to get out of hand as the thumping of a sound system sets pictures silverware, goblets and the waiter shaking. The brothers show up in a 2015 Dodge Durango. The ad touts the UConnect system’s BeatsAudio. “Well, there goes the country club,” says the closing V.O. 

The third spot, asking, “Do you know how hard it is to do a commercial with a Dodge … and not do a burnout?” touts the new Scat Pack Challenger and Charger, burning rubber, next to early-century Dodge cars that are doing likewise. A final ad, touting the Dart, has the car’s headlights doing Morse code, untranslated, though the voiceover hints that if you don’t own a Dodge but read Morse code you’d be peeved. Comments on the YouTube clip translate it thusly: “You just spent five minutes decoding a Morse Code message from a Dodge YouTube description.”  

The campaign is also on Dodge’s FacebookTwitter and Instagram channels, at #DodgeBrothers.

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