Driving In Cars With Boys: Is This Any Way To Sell A Sports Car?

Jaguar is getting ready to launch their F-Type, the long anticipated successor to the fabled E-Type of yore. If there ever was a car that was associated with the word “sexy” it’s the E-Type, first introduced at the Geneva auto show in 1961. The two-seater F-Type will get its debut next month at the Paris auto show and it looks like Jaguar is trying to sex up the launch by announcing that indie music and YouTube sensation Lana Del Rey will “collaborate” with the car company on that launch and be the F-Type’s public face.

Del Rey, aka Elizabeth Grant, affects a sultry, retro look and sound that Wikipedia tells us is akin to a “gangsta Nancy Sinatra”. Considering some of the real Nancy Sinatra’s father’s associates, I wonder if that’s intentionally ironic or hip. I wasn’t even hip when Nancy first put on her walking boots and I’m certainly not hip now so when I read of Jaguar’s announcement I had to find out who or what Lana Del Rey was. We won’t know how sexy the F-Type is until we see it without camo next month but I’m pretty sure that most folks would consider that Ms. Del Rey meets a standard for sex appeal. As a matter of fact, she’s come into some criticism for using that sex appeal to further her career. Small wonder, then, that she wore a bathing suit with considerable décolletage for the photo shoot Jaguar arranged for the announcement. Of course this is nothing new. Automobile marketers have used sex to sell cars since before that steer-roping, bronco-busting girl was driving a Jordan Playboy somewhere west of Laramie, and according to Ralph Gilles, the new SRT Viper was modeled after the mental image of Halle Barry lying on her side.

Exit question: Jaguar cars had an important role in the most recent season of Mad Men. Jaguar design chief Ian Callum has said that a Jaguar has to have sensuous curves, including what some call hips and others call haunches. Did Jaguar go with Lana Del Rey because Christina Hendricks wasn’t available?

Ronnie Schreiber edits Cars In Depth, a realistic perspective on cars & car culture and the original 3D car site. If you found this post worthwhile, you can dig deeper at Cars In Depth. If the 3D thing freaks you out, don’t worry, all the photo and video players in use at the site have mono options. Thanks for reading – RJS