• by Karl Greenberg , May 10, 2013

There are going to be a lot of cars in the sixth installment of the "Fast & Furious" franchise. The films have evolved since the first one, which was so long ago it might well have featured a chariot race between Vin Diesel and Charlton Heston. 

Product placement will, as always, abound -- and Chrysler LLC gets a nice position as the company's Dodge and SRT (Street and Racing Technology) divisions have inked a promotional deal with Universal Pictures to tout its cars onscreen and off. The campaign is so comprehensive it may actually be a case of the tail wagging the dog: Co-branded national, local and multicultural advertising campaigns, events, gaming, social media, merchandising, licensing, games, in-theater programs, social media, and sweepstakes.

Not to bury the lead here, but a 2012 Dodge Challenger SRT8 is what Diesel's character Dominic drives in the chase scenes, which means the car will be center-frame in like 99.7% of the movie. He will also drive a Dodge Charger SRT8 and a vintage 1969 Dodge Daytona. The automaker says the production used 10 Charger SRT8.

Dodge's contribution to the pairing includes three new tier 1, 2 and multicultural promotional TV spots, featuring a melange of clips from the movie and new-vehicle footage. The ads started airing last Sunday. One of the ads is for the Dodge Dart, and it continues a "How To" creative direction the automaker introduced when it launched the resurrected Dart last year. This time it's "How to Make Your Car Fast and Furious" wherein the compact car is framed by footage from the new movie. Dodge says the ad will be on network and cable television, including prime time, late night, sports and entertainment programming. The company is also doing a Spanish-language overdub that will run on networks like ESPN Deportes, Galavision, Telemundo and Univision.

A regional dealer group spot has a guy in a dealership eyeing a Dodge Charger; he sees a poster for the movie showing a rendering of the Dodge Challenger. He goes and puts his hands on the "wheel" and is teleported into Vin Diesel-ville of the movie, until he takes his hands of the wheel. The salesman asks him how he's hangin' and he just says, “Awesome!” The spot ends with shot of the Charger, Challenger and Dart.

Digital includes a position on Shazam involving a sweepstakes where dangling the new 2013 Dodge Dart. People who see the co-branded TV spots from May 13 to June 30 and have the Shazam App on their mobile phones or tablets will be able to tag the ads for expanded content (when prompted), including viewing the Fast & Furious 6 movie trailer, getting information on the 2013 Dodge Dart, and entering the giveaway.

And there's more! There's a New Dodge.com/Fast-Six Website, which in addition to info on the Dodge Challenger, Dodge Charger, Dodge Dart, and vintage Dodge Daytona vehicles has movie content, back-story, movie stills and “behind-the-rides” videos. 

On the licensed merch side there are Fast & Furious 6 hats and t-shirts available at www.life.dodge.com. And the licensing program has a digital component, too: Dodge, SRT, Ram Truck and Jeep brand vehicles will be in an Activision console game launching this spring; Dodge and SRT brand products will also be featured in scale vehicles, mobile and Facebook games from different manufacturers; Dodge has a deal with Cie Game's "Car Town Facebook" for a promotion with Fandango.com and Regal Theaters: when people buy "Fast & Furious 6" on Fandango.com to see the movie in a Regal theater, they are entered to win the Dodge Charger SRT8 VinDom drives in the movie.

In the racing world Chrysler's SRT brand created a No. 91 Fast & Furious SRT Viper GTS-R emblazoned with logos from the film that has been racing this season and will hit the strip again at the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) Monterey race this weekend. At each of the three ALMS races people can get photos with the actual Dodge Charger SRT8 seen in "Fast & Furious 6."