Land Rover has sent letters of apology to customers on a marketing database after a Range Rover Sport promotional mailing of a “slim box with a flashing green light” unfortunately coincided with alleged attempted terrorist car bombings in London and a car firebombing at Glasgow airport last weekend.
A Land Rover spokeswoman said the promotion for the top-line supercharged Range Rover Sport models included the box with its LCD light and a strapline including the words ‘it’s fully charged’.
She said the first mailings went out on Friday but subsequent postings were halted after weekend events in the UK included the discovery of two gas bottle and nail-filled Mercedes cars in central London and an alleged suicide car fire bombing attempt at Glasgow’s international airport (in which the only casualties were the two occupants, now in hospital).
UK and other authorities have this week been rounding up the alleged plotters – all foreign-born doctors from the Middle East and India with enquiries now extended as far as Australia – and carrying out a series of controlled explosions on suspect vehicles. However, the ‘critical’ terror alert imposed at the weekend has now been scaled back one notch.
Of the slim box with flashing green light it was in the middle of sending out, Land Rover’s undated letter – from UK marketing director Andy Griffiths – said: “Although marked as originating from Land Rover and clearly labelled as a marketing communication, we realised that in the current climate of heightened security, an electronic device like this could have aroused suspicion at first glance.
“We stopped the mailing as soon as we could but some had already been sent.
“It was never our intention that the mailing should cause any anxiety, so please accept my apologies if it did.
The automaker also provided a toll-free number for customers with queries about the mailing.
