Jaguar 'villainy' ad banned

A SECOND JAGUAR ad has been banned in as many months for promoting speed and unsafe driving.

The video on Jaguar Land Rover's YouTube channel was titled The Art Of Villainy and featured actor Tom Hiddleston playing a suave villain while driving a Jaguar F-Type in an underground car park and on a public road.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint that the ad was socially irresponsible because it featured and encouraged unsafe driving.

Jaguar Land Rover said the ad was set almost entirely in an underground car park and that during this time the car barely moved.

The carmaker said that when the car left the car park towards the end of the ad it was shown travelling at normal road speeds and accelerated briefly along The Embankment, and although no specific speed was shown the police were present during filming and the speed limit was not exceeded.

The ASA accepted that the ad focused on the car's appearance and performance rather than speed.

But it said acceleration and speed did feature in the ad when the car was shown driving up the ramp to exit the underground car park and when it was shown being driven on a public road at night.

It said: "Whilst we acknowledged the sequences were brief, we considered that the second part of the ad suggested that the car was being driven at excessive speeds and that the ad therefore encouraged irresponsible driving."

It ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form, adding: "We told Jaguar Land Rover not to portray speed or driving behaviour that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly in future."

Last month the ASA banned a set of four video ads on Jaguar's website showing a car travelling at speed through a tunnel and crossing over the single white lines in the middle of a road, before driving across a mountain road at night.

The ASA said the overall impression of the ads was a focus on the speed and acceleration of the cars, noting that the cars were being driven on what appeared to be public roads and in a manner that would be "irresponsible and illegal" in the UK.

By Josie Clarke, Press Association