Challenging Authority

Back in the late 60's/early 70's heyday of the muscle car, the need for speed often trumped the importance of safety on the road. The Dodge Challenger, a latecomer to the muscle car game, was best known for its role as the featured automobile in the high speed car chase cult classic Vanishing Point, in which a driver and his blind DJ navigator, Supersoul — I didn't make that up — elude cops in a quest to make it to from Colorado to San Francisco in under 15 hours. It's this very outlaw appeal that Dodge embraces in their latest ad campaign for the revamped 2008 Challenger. The campaign incorporates a moving billboard of the Challenger being tailgated by another moving billboard of a police car effectively harnessing the image it cultivated in the 1971 film that made it an automotive icon. So if you happen to be cruising the strip and you catch an eyeful of a 2008 Challenger, it’s best you slow down; Smokey — 70’s euphemism for the fuzz — might be hot on your tail, too.