Lightning Audio launches global ad campaign, poster-art for audiofiles

The car audio market is getting bland so lightning audio decided to live up to their name and called in 86 the onions to shake things up a little. The result: A global brand campaign worthy of an auto-enthusiast's wall. Check out all the fancy inside.

In an advertising category where competitors traditionally show models posing in front of show cars, Lightning Audio has always stood out, building it's reputation on shock value: a metal logo, for instance, being embedded in a performance artist’s chest (much like those brass knuckle implants sported by the women under that link.). But to the growing mainstream audience, that's a bit much - not to mention irrelevant to car audio.

The onions explain:

Working with their existing tagline, “Excessive Sound. Excessive Lifestyle,” 86 the onions wanted to maintain Lightning Audio’s edge of previous advertising without alienating their growing market. Unlike Lightning Audio’s mainstream competitors, 86 the onions isn’t creating an attention-getting image and then putting the logo in the bottom right hand corner next to a product shot. Instead, the agency has found a compelling and relevant way to communicate the awesome power and styling of Lightning Audio by seamlessly integrating the product, logos, website, etc. into one piece that consumers will not only notice, relate to, and remember—but one they’ll potentially want to hang on their wall. Of course, they’ll buy the product too.

“We’re still reaching those who might spend $50K on a $7K car, but we’re not holding up a mirror to the culture,” says 86 the onions’ founder/creative director Chad Rea. “We’re communicating style and power, but were bringing it to life in way that youth culture responds to. It’s product-inspired brand art.”

The talent: Nico Ammann, Art Director & Chad Rea CD/CW with a posse of illustrators - Kris Delaney, Ely Kim, Nigel Denis, Matt Pyke, Ricard Vegan, Steve Smith and Chuck Anderson.