It's a Jungle Out There for Land Rover's Discovery

Forget shots of trucks tackling rugged terrain in exotic locales. In Land Rover’s new dealer effort for its 2004 Discovery SUV, the real adventure is at the dealership.

The national campaign, which breaks today via WPP Group’s Young & Rubicam in Irvine, Calif., extends the client’s dealership-as-star positioning—initially used this summer in a spot for the Freelander model—to the Discovery, the oldest vehicle in Land Rover’s U.S. lineup. (The model, which reported sales of 14,830 vehicles from January-October, up 4 percent from the comparable period in 2002, was first sold here in 1994.)

The work aims to show how different Land Rover’s dealerships are from others and how drivers can test vehicles in a rugged setting there.

In a rough cut of one 30-second TV spot, “Safari,” a man drives a Discovery on what appears to be a safari as he cautions a female passenger and two kids to lock the doors.