Sunday’s Observer mag was a climate change special. Guest edited by rock eco-warrior Thom Yorke, the content was entirely devoted to environmental issues. Lead articles included a discussion with Mayor Ken Livingstone about transport policy in London, a piece on the future of eco-friendly cars and an article about Freiburg, ‘the world’s greenest city’. Even the fashion section and the restaurant reviews reflected the theme – second hand clothing and green, guilt-free food. This focus must have been flagged up to advertisers in advance, as ad content included messages from the Energy Saving Trust and Ronseal Eco decking stain. But not all advertisers seemed to have picked up on this. First of all, I was a little surprised to find a Land Rover ad…

Then, as I leafed through, I realised that the mag was full of ads for gas-guzzling motors.

Chrysler:

VW:

Toyota:

Ford:

And there were also ads for Suzuki, Saab and Lexus.
It seems unlikely to me that the context of stories about Amazonian deforestation and melting Arctic glaciers..

…is a sympathetic one in which to persuade people to consider the purchase of a "fully charged" Range Rover Sport or a "beautiful new special edition" RAV 4. These are exactly the sort of vehicles that will be subject to the new £25-a-day congestion charge plans discussed in the lead interview between Thom Yorke and Ken Livingstone.

So – is it just lazy media planning (Sunday supps = bung in glossy car ads), or did the media planners just think that the surrounding content was irrelevant to their messages? ‘A few articles about dead fish aren’t going to deter our target audience from lusting after "the murmuring power of the 3.0 CRD, its 215bhp tempered with traction control and ESP."’ (Chrysler.)

Or maybe… this is actually a brilliantly clever strategy that has been carefully thought out to achieve maximum effectiveness . The theory could be that placing a Land Rover ad where you would least expect it – in a magazine about climate change – makes the ad stand out like a dead penguin on a Hampstead pavement.

Time for a swift exit, possibly by bus in order to avoid ‘C-Charge in the Suburbs’.