That Viral Dodge Ad Isn’t the First Time Automakers Compared Drivers to ‘Predators’
This isn’t even a new low.
A new viral Dodge ad has some street safety advocates outraged at the notoriously aggressive carmaker — but others are pointing out that this is just the latest chapter in the company’s long history of commercials that openly promote the deadliest driving behaviors.
On Thursday, the Stellantis subsidiary tweeted a new ad for the Durango SUV, which depicted a simple image of the 2.5-ton assault car with a shiny red paint job menacing the lens, followed by the tagline, “A predator doesn’t need camouflage” and a smirking emoji.
The company later deleted the tweet, but only after it had sparked angry responses from hundreds of users, many of whom questioned a marketing strategy that highlighted the Durango’s killing power on the heels of one of the bloodiest years on American roadways in recent memory.
The federal Department of Transportation estimates that more than 40,000 people died in car crashes in 2021 — the most since 2007 — and experts say the rising proportion of trucks and SUVs in the national vehicle fleet is one of the drivers the surge, particularly among pedestrians, whom the drivers of large vehicle are two to three times more likely to kill than motorists who choose smaller cars.
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