Ad Watch: The Dodge Nitro's So Heavy, Man

You may have seen this ad already — a 60 second version of the spot above debuted on Sunday — and much of the ducats spent went to showing the commercial on CBS NFL, Fox NFL Sunday, NASCAR racing on NBC and "Law & Order" on TNT. But apparently the commercial, which is supposed to reflect "the masculine, bold design of the Nitro" won't just be airing where you'd be expecting guys to be. Mark Spencer, the senior manager of Dodge's marketing and global communications also plans for the ad to run on "Desperate Housewives" and "Crossing Jordan", because,

"At the same time, the campaign will be in front of women using mass media not usually associated with the Dodge brand, and it's 'Grab Life by the Horns' persona..."

Ok, here's a question for you Mark — if you're aiming this directly at guys — why even bother dropping ad dollars on shoving it in the faces of non-targeted consumers? Doesn't that seem to be a bit of a waste? And secondly, what's up with the ad itself? The creative, dubbed "Planet" — straight from the always-smarter-than-the-consumer BBDO NY team ( a team that, after this creative hit, I'm starting to dub the BBDO "B team" ) — seems to not have a very clear message going here. Are they trying to say...

...the Nitro is very heavy? Are they trying to say that, like Spawn, even hellfire won't hurt it? Wait, maybe they're saying production of the Nitro will eventually move to China. Who knows — all I know is I'm confused as hell. More importantly than my understanding the creative, considering Joe Eberhardt's marketing kids are dropping it into TV shows nowhere near their sales demographic, will it really matter?

Related:
Ad Watch: Dodge Tries To Jump Start Its Heart With The Nitro SUV [internal]