In March of 2019 the design team at Diamond was tasked with the first Designer challenge. We were to choose between a Dodge Charger and a Jeep Wrangler and come up with a new campaign to pitch. I chose the Dodge Charger because I felt like I could take the design down a path that I thought people could relate to.
I did research on older Dodge ads and picked up inspiration from a 1966 Charger ad. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the challenge as soon as I saw it. I wanted to market that the 2019 Charger was the same car Dodge came out with when they were first released.
In 1966, Dodge was trying to build up a reputation for excitement and power, moving from its traditional place as the car between Plymouth and Chrysler in size and luxury. And with the release of the ’66 Charger, Dodge broke into the muscle-car market with the introduction of the high-performance fastback Charger. The Charger became one of the most well-known muscle cars when it debuted The General Lee in the television show, The Duke of Hazzard.
So for this ad campaign I wanted to play on it being the same car, with a new feel to it. Like an update. The target demographic I chose was an older consumer base because I knew that people would remember the car they had in the sixties or remember it as the car they always wanted growing up. That is how I came up with the slogan for the campaign; “Same Car, New Era.”
As for the look of the campaign itself, I wanted an aggressive look but still something classic. I have always been a fan of movie posters and thought that I could do something that took inspiration from old grindhouse films. Grindhouse or “Action-House” was a term for a theater that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films. The artwork for these pictures was generally very gritty and aggressive with mostly read and black tones. I wanted the art for my Dodge campaign to have the same type of bold and gritty look as well as still demonstrating that even though this vehicle may have changed over time, it is still the vehicle you wanted or owned back in the day
Benjamin Tomlin is a Graphic Designer for Diamond Media Solutions.
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