The Dodge Dart - photo from Wieden & Kennedy via Detroit Free Press
(DETROIT FREE PRESS) - Chrysler has injected humor and hip-hop into its first commercial for the all-new Dodge Dart compact car, which is scheduled to debut Tuesday night during Major League Baseball's All-Star game on the Fox Network.
The 90-second commercial provides a tongue-in-cheek inside look into the coffee-fueled, intense and sometimes frustrating process of designing a new car.
"Kick out the committees," the narrator says at one point. "Why? Because they lead to compromise."
The soundtrack for the commercial comes from the Jay-Z and Kanye West song, "No Church in the Wild," and includes a cameo appearance by Tom Brady, the star NFL quarterback for the New England Patriots.
The Dart is the most important car Chrysler will launch this year and one of the most important since it emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. Developed from the underlying structure of an Alfa Romeo Giulietta, the Dart is the first jointly engineered offspring of the marriage between Chrysler and majority owner Fiat.
It began arriving in dealerships in June and is also Chrysler's first compact car since it discontinued the Dodge Neon in 2005.
To be a success, Chrysler must convince young buyers that Chrysler can build a high-quality, reliable small car. Competitors include the Chevrolet Cruze, Ford Focus, Honda Civic, Hyundai Elantra, Nissan Sentra and Toyota Corolla. The 2013 Dodge Dart will be offered with five trim levels with a starting price of $15,995.
Chrysler said today the first commercial, titled "How to Change Cars Forever" is a "rapid-fire, instructional spot" that shows how it is making the new car.
"'How to Change Cars Forever' captures the meticulous process of starting with a simple idea and developing it into a revolutionary new car, including the angst and pressure of a blank page, trials and errors of the early stages, and molding, shaping and testing the Dodge Dart until it was right," Olivier Francois, Chrysler's Chief Marketing Officer said in a statement.
The commercial also introduces the tagline, "New Rules," which is used to explain how Dodge aims to redefine the compact car segment. It is the first of three commercials developed for the Dart.
Dodge will release 30-second and 60-second versions of the commercial later this summer on major broadcast and cable networks and in movie theaters. The 60-second version of "How to Change Cars Forever" will run in theaters nationwide from July 20 - Aug. 31.
The commercials were created by Portland, Ore.-based advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy - the same firm behind Chrysler's Super Bowl commercials in 2011 and 2012.
DETROIT FREE PRESS