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

June 9, 2015 , Auburn Hills, Mich. -  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.

Dodge//SRT
For more than 100 years, the Dodge brand has carried on the spirit of brothers John and Horace Dodge. Their influence continues today as Dodge shifts into high gear with a lineup that delivers unrivaled performance in each of the segments in which the brand competes while moving forward to a future that includes electrified muscle in the form of the next-generation, all-new Dodge Charger.

The next-generation Dodge Charger electrifies a legend, with the Charger retaining its title as the world’s quickest and most powerful muscle car led by the all-new, all-electric 2024 Dodge Charger Daytona Scat Pack. The all-new Dodge Charger will also offer performance choices via multi-energy powertrain options including the 550-horsepower Dodge Charger SIXPACK H.O., powered by the 3.0L Twin Turbo Hurricane High Output engine.

Dodge also keeps its foot on the gas as a pure performance brand with the 710-horsepower Dodge Durango SRT Hellcat, the most powerful SUV ever, and best-in-class standard performance in the compact utility vehicle segment with the Dodge Hornet.

Dodge is part of the portfolio of brands offered by leading global automaker and mobility provider Stellantis. For more information regarding Stellantis (NYSE: STLA), please visit www.stellantis.com.

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