Best Jaguar Ad Ever: Chinese F-Type Spot With David Beckham

This cinematic celebration of Jaguar’s racing heritage would have worked just fine without its star.

Before the internet, it was a lot easier for A-list celebrities to get away with doing commercials in Japan or China without western audiences being any wiser. But even in the era of YouTube, it’s still possible for a giant star to appear in a major overseas campaign and not have it be common knowledge. I know this because despite being a huge Jaguar fan, I just happened to discover this awesome Chinese-market F-Type ad featuring David Beckham — some five years after its release.

Now, I want to be clear here: this is not the best car commercial ever. In my opinion, the best car commercial ever isn’t even technically a car commercial. It’s a Shell spot that’s essentially an audio history of Ferrari F1 engines, and I listen it whenever I feel a little down. Seriously, if tinnitus sounded like the glorious wailing at the 22-second mark? I would pay to have it.

But this F-Type spot is absolutely my favorite Jaguar ad ever, and my only complaint is that I wish it was longer. It spectacular job of drawing lines between the modern sports car and the legendary Jaguars which dominated circuits during racing’s golden era, and I’ve watched it at least ten times since I found it.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it opens with Beckham running toward a C-Type racer, which is my favorite Jaguar ever. While I’ve never seen one in person, in the alternate reality where I have piles of money and it never rains in Seattle, I daily drive a C-Type.

Or rather, a replica of a C-Type. Because even in my wildest dreams, I don’t have a zillion dollars to spend on a 70 year-old race car. Besides, even alternate-reality John wouldn’t want to wind up wrecking something as historic as a C-Type while running to pick up Thai food. That’d be like plunking a Doubled Die Reverse Buffalo Nickel into a vending machine.

As the spot progresses, we see Beckham in a D-Type, and then an E-Type, before he storms into London in an F-Type coupe, and every shot is appropriately cinematic.

Given how sexy those iconic machines are, Jaguar could honestly be forgiven if it didn’t want its latest effort compared to them. They were designed for much different reasons in a much different time, and were subject to none of the restrictions modern stylists have to deal with.

If things had gone differently, the F-Type could have looked like weak tea next to them, but it doesn’t. This isn’t like when Cadillac tried to use images of its 1960s classics to try to sell the butter-knife dull designs of the 1990s. Far from it. This is a pure celebration of heritage, and it’s beautiful.

I can’t be the only one who happened to miss this spot when it was first released, so make sure to check it out if you haven’t seen it. It’s a great excuse to see some vintage British iron on screen, and reinforces just what a triumph of design the F-Type is.

That said, is there a better Jaguar spot out there that I’m missing? A classic that remains under my radar? If you think there is, head into the forum and let me know. Just remember to include a link!

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