Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R created the ad, which opens with the Inuit driving a sled pulled by a team of huskies across an Arctic landscape. A Land Rover Discovery 3 pulls alongside the sled and the Inuit looks on in awe as the smug driver smiles at him.
The Inuit is distracted from driving after he tries to get a better look inside the Land Rover, and is knocked off when his sled runs into a hump of snow. He is left chasing his sled, which is disappearing into the distance.
In other executions the Eskimo is given a lift by the driver, apparently giving up on his sled.
According to all 71 complainants, the ad was racist and denigrated Inuit culture. Sixty also complained that the ad showed behaviour harmful to the environment.
The Advertising Standards Authority rejected all the aspects of the complaints. It did not consider the Inuit was being mocked either because of his race or because of his means of transport.
It talked to the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre and Rainey Kelly, responding on behalf of Land Rover, which said the ad was intended to be humorous.
The agency explained that the ad was followed by a sequel, which has also been broadcast, showing the Land Rover driver giving the Inuit man and his dogs a lift and being taught his language. It added that Land Rover contributed to a global environmental protection programme.
The ASA also concluded that the "fantastical scenario" shown in the ad would not be seen by the majority of viewers as condoning behaviour that would harm the Arctic environment.
It is not the first time Land Rover has been in trouble. In 2004 around 350 complained about an ad, also made by Rainey Kelly, which was accused of glamorising gun culture.
Shot in the style of a thriller the ad featured a housewife retrieving a gun from a drawer apparently about to murder her husband as he sits in his Freelander. However, it materialises the gun is merely a starting pistol.
In 2000, Land Rover was again accused of racism in its advertising. It was forced to withdraw an ad by the South Africa's Advertising Standards Authority and print a public apology.
The three-page press ad featured a semi-naked African woman in native dress whose breasts were blown sideways by the tailwind of the vehicle. The ad carried the tagline "The new more powerful Freelander".
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