The Scooby Doo school of marketing says if you press enough buttons on the control panels in potential customers brains, eventually you hit the right one. In that spirit, here's Dodge decapitating a self-driving robot. And the crowd goes wild.
Dodge is roughly halfway through the lipstick-on-a-pig trough where it has to tout ancient models as fresh and exciting while waiting for the new stuff. On the plus side, the Charger, Challenger and Grand Caravan minivans have emerged from the Fiat makeovers with some style. On the minus side, there's not much more to be done with an Avenger, Caliber or Nitro. But you can't spell marketing without "Y-E-S!"
This spot is the classic ad play, tying the Charger to a feeling that no other auto ad whiz had yet to stake as their own. Want a computer-driven car with your holo-food and apartment that treats you like the belle of the cotillion? Enjoy the stylish death of your soul, fussybritches.
But like this banner ad shot in Chicago and noted by Fodder650, Dodge's new manifesto of manly driving occasionally trips over its own products. If you're going to argue that stick shifts should never die, why show a car that's only sold with an automatic. Maybe Dodge could put some more meat by building a few more models with a manual option beyond the Caliber and Challenger.
H/T Aaron