Ineos Automotive is digging out the Land Rover Defender in a new ad campaign, cheekily placed on Land Rover’s home turf.
It’s well-known that Jim Radcliff’s Ineos Automotive came into being with the aim of delivering a ‘Real’ Land Rover Defender as JLR mulled the replacement for the original Defender.
It all started with Jim Radcliffe trying to buy the rights to the original Defender from JLR (which failed) and Land Rover trying to trademark the Land Rover defender ‘Shape’ (which failed), which gave Ineos the abillity to create their own version of what a modern Defender should be with the Ineos Grenadier.
All the shenanigans with Land Rover over almost a decade clearly still rankles at Ineos as they arrive with a new ad campaign effectively trolling the Land Rover Defender.
The advert (above) shows a billboard outside a big London Jaguar Land Rover Dealership showing a muddy Ineos Grenadier facing a clean and polished Land Rover Defender with the caption “Let’s take this outside”.
Not only that, but Ineos hitched the same billboard to a trailer on the back of a Grenadier to drive it around JLR’s home turf in Solihull (image below).
Lynn Calder, CEO INEOS Automotive, Said:
We’ve held our tongues while winning the court cases over and over again, and we feel it’s now time to set the record straight: we’re not them and we’re not trying to be them. Good luck to the others: they’re cool cars. But we’re tired of the comparisons. To be clear, this is all about saying we’re different.
Let battle commence.
Peter says
Let’s be honest it’s a poor copy of a defender, it’s a bitza and it doesn’t look as good as the new defender, it’s also very expensive for what it is
mark A. geller says
Agreed. Different. Less attractive (IMHO) and a copy of what’s not a Defender anymore. They will never sell in the numbers of JLR Defenders at any point. The market has changed. JLR has delivered to where the market is today. Beautiful and competent when, if ever, required. Maybe, if you want a look, like you play in the dirt… all the time, by all means, get yourself a Grenadier.