“Have you ever noticed how in Hollywood movies, all the villains are played by Brits?”
That’s the question posed by Sir Ben Kingsley in Jaguar’s latest ad campaign that was unveiled during Sunday’s Super Bowl – the climax of the NFL American football season.
The event is watched by a worldwide audience and early estimates suggest that 111.5 million viewers tuned in to watch the Seattle Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos in the US alone.
So, it’s not difficult to see why advertising spots command such a premium!
Jaguar was one of the many car manufacturers to jump on the opportunity, using some of Tinsel Town’s top names to promote the latest F-TYPE Coupe.
While the stars in the commercial might be familiar to American viewers for their appearances in some of the country’s blockbusters, they all hail from these shores.
In addition to the aforementioned Sir Ben, Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston made up the British trio, all of whom have played notable villains in extremely popular films.
The ‘Rendezvous’ campaign sees the three actors convening at a large house outside of the UK capital. Kingsley waits for the other two villains, with Hiddlestone arriving by helicopter and Strong making his way through London in the F-TYPE model.
They all question why cinematic evil is portrayed quite so regularly by British stars, suggesting the accent, a sense of style, a precise nature, and the stiff-upper-lip trait all help to play a part.
Instead of being critical of this image, the three embrace it, with Kingsley rounding off the advert with the quotable statement – It’s good to be bad.
In addition to the viewers that caught the ad during the game, it has also been seen by 9.2 million viewers on YouTube in just six days. It has become Jaguar’s most popular campaign and has generated a huge amount of brand mention on social media networks.
Jeff Curry, brand vice president of Jaguar North America, said: “Launching the F-TYPE Coupé campaign with a Super Bowl advertisement gave us a huge platform to share our vision of British sophistication and charm to our target audience, and introduce America to the modern Jaguar brand and the all new F-TYPE Coupé.
“Our record levels of interest this past week are early indicators Jaguar is greatly benefiting from the national exposure and social engagement that comes from participating in the Super Bowl broadcast.”
The F-TYPE Coupe has a 3.0-litre supercharged 340PS V6 engine, capable of achieving 0-60mph in just 5.1 seconds, before hitting a top speed of 161 mph. In the higher spec S version, the comparable figures are 4.8 seconds and 171 mph. Perfect for a speedy getaway!
In the video, Strong really puts the engine to work, and shows it nimbleness as it negotiates its way around the streets.
A final great thing about British villains is their impressive powers of persuasion.
It’s definitely good to be bad.
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