Context is everything, so the contemporary aphorism tells us—in marketing perhaps especially. Mercedes is no stranger to enriching the dimensions of their products with just the right associations—or, in this case, even cross-pollinating context enrichment within the greater company lineup itself.

What has the G-Class to say about the stodgily utilitarian Unimog, and what has the Unimog to reveal about the utilitarian-luxe G-Class? How does each inform, support, and add dimension to the other, and improve its image?

These sound like academic questions, and certainly would be had it not been for Mercedes’ most recent promotional campaign, which puts the well-dressed executive and the burly blue-collar master tradesman in the same photoshoot, uneasy cousins linked by a strong family resemblance and sensibility.

Both suggest Mercedes historicity—that is, both stand as evidence of the company’s verifiable history, and the connection between its quotidian production and the myth that has developed around the brand over decades of operation.

The Unimog is classic Mercedes muscle and longevity; it’s a mountain of an all-terrain, all-purpose truck, and looks ageless, and well-nigh indestructible. It rubs off a bit of that craggy travel-log onto the G-Class. And the G-Class—refreshed, renewed, revised as a luxurious tech-heavy personal conveyance with just the right amount of refined pretension—rubs off a little of its country-house shooting-party literacy on the Unimog.

The ad campaign is called ‘Summit of the Off-Road Giants.’ The G-Class also received well-deserved praise of late with the introduction of the Strong Than Time edition.