1940sads

Land Rover advertisements 1948 - 1949

To view these 1940s adverts as a slide show, click here

------------ 1948

The was the first major Land Rover advertisement and appeared in Autocar magazine in the last week of April to coincide with the vehicle's launch at the Amsterdam Motor Show.

------------ 1948

Small ads began appearing in many local newspapers across Britain from the end of April onwards. Most featured a simple line drawing of a Land Rover in action along with the words "GO anywhere ~ DO anything".

------------ 1948

Here is a more illustrative advert which began appearing in local newspapers showing the range of tasks the new Land Rover could do.

------------ 1948

This local newspaper advert emphasises the Land Rover's immense pulling power and uses the words 101 industrial uses for the first time.

------------ 1948

Here is another example of an advert which uses simple line drawings to show the potential of the Land Rover to undertake multiple tasks on the farm. The words: "Britain's most versatile vehicle" appeared on many of the early adverts. As with many of these ads, the text was supplied by Head Office and stated the vehicles were available either right or left hand drive.

------------ 1948

Here, the local Rover dealer uses the minimalist approach to try and sell the vehicle; an extremely simple line drawing and the most basic text.

------------ 1948

The first use of photography in Land Rover advertising and one of the first ads not aimed specifically at farmers. In this very staged picture, the Land Rover is shown as the ideal vehicle to pull a horse box on a typical country estate.

------------ 1948

The "upmarket" Land Rover station wagon was launched only a few months after the basic model and was also heavily promoted in the press. The ads usually emphasised it could carry seven passengers and had plenty of luggage space.

------------ 1948

Grenville Motors were one of the first dealers to sell Land Rovers in Australia and this is one of their early advertisements, displayed only a few months after the vehicle was launched in Britain

------------ 1949

An example of the Land Rover being advertised with its more elegant and better known sister as part of a general Rover press campaign. It didn't take long though before the Land Rover was outselling the Rover car by more than two to one.

------------ 1949

This local dealer advert shows the new price for the basic Land Rover. When it was launched, the basic price was £450, but within months this had been increased to £540, although it did now include more features

------------ 1949

As the initial Land Rovers were only 80 inches long, the Rover company quickly began offering the sturdy Brockhouse trailer as an optional extra to provide more carrying capacity and from 1949 they produced dedicated adverts to show it in use.

------------ 1949

This is the first example of a magazine advert featuring a photograph of a Land Rover at work on a farm, and it is also one of the very earliest adverts which uses colour to draw the reader in

------------ 1949

Another farming advert with a striking image, but with the same key phrase at the bottom of the ad as previously: "Wherever there's work to be done -you''ll find the Land Rover".

------------ 1949

Another ad with a clear illustration of how the Land Rover can be so useful on a farm.

------------ 1949

Many of the early farming adverts used the same text, but with different images to show the Land Rover in action in many different ways.

------------ 1949

While the Rover company were paying for adverts in the national farming press, this is an example of an advert from a dealer placing an advert in its local newspaper.

------------ 1949

The smaller adverts by local dealers were usually much simpler than the full-page ones produced by the Rover company. This is one which shows the triple bucket seat arrangement.

------------ 1949

This local dealer's ad emphasises the virtue of the vehicle being produced by the long established Rover company, as opposed to any unique qualities of the Land Rover itself.

------------ 1949

Despite its high price and disappointing sales, Rover continued to produce and advertise the more upmarket station wagon model throughout 1949. Most of the ads showed the vehicle being used as a station shuttle bus.

------------ 1949

An advert from a main dealer in Darwin, one of Australia's most northerly, hottest and remote towns and where a Land Rover would have been especially useful out of town, as proper roads were few and far between.

------------ 1949

This early advert from the Regent Motors Land Rover dealer in Melbourne, Australia, showed a "happy" Australian farmer and clear illustrations of the new Land Rover in action.

------------ 1949

Regent Motors continued using their happy farmer image in other adverts, but just showing a profile of a single Land Rover.

------------ 1949

This advert included a photograph of a special promotional Land Rover with the words "The British Land Rover". The vehicle was used for publicity purposes throughout the area.

------------ 1949

Another advertisement from Australia, this one from one of the main dealers in Queensland. It also extensively uses the line drawings which were popular in early UK adverts

------------ 1949

This advert also from Annand and Thompson in Brisbane, Australia, showed the price in £, when Australia was still using the same currency as the UK