RAM Turns Pickup Into Takeoff with RHO Airlines

If you’re not flying RHO Airlines, you need an upgrade. This is not your average airline. There are no delays, no chicken-or-beef existential crises and no jetlag. Just dust, speed, and the kind of lift-off that makes your heart sit in your throat.

When your client is RAM Middle East and they ask for a campaign to launch the all-new RAM RHO 1500, you turn car specs into a spectacle. Publicis Middle East saw more than a truck. They saw an aircraft.

The RAM RHO is a lighter, faster, more agile beast with 540 horsepower. But more than that, it’s a prime example of how RAM is redefining the pickup category — bringing high-quality interiors, human-centric technology, and comfort into a segment traditionally known for utility.

Truck owners in the Middle East aren’t looking for a workhorse. They are looking for a fun driving experience. They demand more from their vehicles: size, thrill, and refinement in one. Today’s vehicles don’t just compete with each other; they compete with all forms of mobility. And with Middle Eastern consumers indexing high on destination travel, positioning the RAM RHO as an exciting mobility experience felt like a natural leap.

Enter RHO Airlines: an unexpected destination travel brand, a turbocharged PR stunt and, unofficially, the world’s shortest flight, clocking in at just 1.2 adrenaline-fuelled seconds.

When you’ve got a new truck this bold, it only makes sense to roll out a campaign that no one saw coming. Publicis transformed the RHO’s product truth into a campaign that doesn’t just speak to performance — it launches it, literally and the client immediately cleared it for take-off. The agency created a full-blown airline experience in the least likely place imaginable: the desert. There were check-in counters. Boarding passes. Air hostesses. Ground crew. Even air traffic control. Everything you’d expect from an airline — except the plane.

Because with RHO Airlines, the aircraft is a RAM truck.

To take things airborne, RAM collaborated with beloved influencer duo The @SaudiReporters — and orchestrated a desert prank of epic proportions. In a film that blurs the lines between a creator collab and cinematic experience, Abdullah invited his brother Abdulaziz to board a mysterious new airline for a very short flight. Abdulaziz didn’t know the vehicle waiting on the runway would be an RHO — and the pilot a stunt driver. Moments later, the pilot hit the gas launching the RHO over a sand dune, 1.5 meters into the air and across a distance of 15 metres.

“Craft lies at the heart of everything we do,” said Tuki Ghiassi, executive creative director at Publicis Middle East. “A truck that can fly over dunes deserves an idea that makes the imagination take flight as well. RHO Airlines is a perfect example of how we transform product truth into spectacle — unexpected, immersive, and impossible to ignore. We went the extra airmile to develop a full-blown airline experience down to the smallest detail. From the airport branding, crew uniforms and inflight meal design, to details viewers wouldn’t even notice, like air hostess name tags, luggage tags and passenger kits complete with blankets and sleeping masks, nothing was overlooked.”

The campaign began with cryptic teaser content, hinting at a new airline entering the market. It culminated in a short film capturing the Saudi Reporters prank, the big reveal and Abdulaziz’s screams.

Stuart Laurie, head of RAM at Stellantis Middle East commented, “This is more than a truck. It’s a new way of thinking about mobility. With RHO Airlines, we’re showing what happens when product innovation meets creativity.”

Anton Marais, senior creative director at Publicis Middle East said, “Is RAM launching an actual airline? Not quite. But it is launching a conversation with a campaign that’s flying across the region. While other truck brands still battle it out with direct messages centered on leadership and power, RHO Airlines proved RAM’s capability without needing to say it.”