Dodge Ratchets Up Advertising for Dart

Chrysler is boosting its marketing for the Dodge Dart, with an expanded scope targeting young, multicultural drivers.

The auto maker again enlists Pitbull, a Cuban-American rapper from Miami, for a nationwide campaign. The musician has been linked with Fiat’s marketing efforts for the 500 subcompact.

In television ads debuting this week, a song titled “Drop 2 the Bottom” plays in the spots targeting African-American and Hispanic-American buyers and will air on networks aimed at those audiences. Some ads will be in Spanish.

It’s the most recent national campaign targeted at raising the market profile of the compact car, which has seen sales slip the past two months after rising to an any-month high of 8,099 units in April, according to WardsAuto data.

The Dart was launched with the wider-ranging “How To Change Cars Forever” marketing campaign last summer. The car also has been the focus of a registry service, where customers can encourage patrons to crowd-fund a car’s purchase as a gift.

“Like the original, the new multicultural ‘How to Change Cars Forever’ spot uses the same dose of fun, creative license and Dodge-brand humor to capture the meticulous process of starting with a simple idea and developing it into a revolutionary new car,” Olivier Francois, Chrysler’s chief marketing officer, says in a news release.

“Pitbull is a great fit for the Dodge Dart, as both are hip, innovative and relevant to millennials, yet also have cross-over appeal.”

This month also marks production of the Dart GT, a sport-tuned version of the compact that is the first to employ Chrysler’s new, 2.4L MultiAir II engine.

[email protected]