Defender Ad Banned in UK

A new, whimsical Defender TV commercial has been banned in the UK for misrepresenting the function of the vehicle’s backup sensors after two people submitted complaints to Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

The ad is called “Above and Beyond Land,” and it’s all about a whimsical wonderland where Defenders are allowed to roam free. It opens with a small ferry dropping its ramp into the shores of a mystical, mountainous, fog-shrouded island. Three Defenders zoom off the boat and embark on an adventure into a world made just for them.

The statue in the town center is a classic Defender Works V8, traffic lights in the middle of the desert make Defenders stop for wild horses, a waterfall serves as a carwash, and traffic guards make sure the vehicles have a safe day of dune bashing.

All of it’s in good fun, and probably the closest thing to the legendary whimsical Land Rover ad campaigns of the 1990s and 2000s we’ve seen in a while. It also has the vibes of the globetrotting 2004 LR3 launch ad, “Edge.”

The trouble with the ad comes in the last scene, where a Tasman Blue Defender 90 backs up to the edge of a Moab-like cliff face. The backup sensors beep, crescendoing as the truck nears the edge of the cliff.

The problem? Backup sensors are meant to beep when you are near something to hit, not something to fall into. After an analysis of the ad, the ASA determined that there was nothing behind the Defender for it to possibly back into that would trigger the sensors. Since the backup sensors can’t detect large voids that you might or might not fall into, the ad was determined misleading and pulled from British TV.

Land Rover countered that the sensors were responding to a boulder behind the vehicle, but the ASA said that it wasn’t obvious, and the rocks were incidental to the overall scene.

While most people are aware of what parking sensors can and cannot do, since they’ve been pretty commonplace on just about every car for two decades, Land Rover’s reputation may have hurt them more than helped them here. It wouldn’t be a stretch to think that the company that pioneered four-wheel-drive ABS, long-travel adjustable air suspensions, Terrain Response, and 360-degree off-road cameras would develop a system to detect holes you might drive into.

Land Rover didn’t appeal, though it did reply to the decision in the media with a statement that might win the passive-aggressive award for the year: "[w]e will of course abide by their ruling which was based on only two complaints."

Whether the “Above and Beyond Land” ad comes back with an edited final scene is yet to be determined, but at least for now, you can venture to this mystical place on YouTube.