Jeremy Clarkson’s latest advertisement for his Hawkstone beer has been banned from television, radio and cinema broadcasts due to explicit language, he has claimed.
The former Top Gear presenter hired a 34-strong choir of British farmers to perform their own version of a classic opera tune for the commercial.
The controversy centres on the farmers’ alteration of lyrics to sing “F*** me it’s good” repeatedly throughout the advertisement.
Clarkson himself appears in the commercial, taking a sip of his pint whilst surrounded by the choir before declaring to camera: “Hawkstone. It is f***ing good.”
The 65-year-old has criticised what he calls the “fun police” for refusing to allow the advertisement to air. Broadcasting regulators have deemed the production “not compliant” with standards, effectively preventing it from reaching audiences through traditional media channels.
The advertisement features farmers singing to the tune of “Flower Duet” from the opera Lakmé, with the original French lyrics replaced by the profane phrase.
“It’s difficult to put into the spoken word how hard it is to make Hawkstone lager, so instead I’ve put it into a song for some farmers to sing,” Clarkson says at the beginning of the advertisement.
The commercial includes Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm colleague Kaleb Cooper amongst the choir. The production also features drone footage of the Cotswolds countryside, where Clarkson films his Amazon Prime series and operates his pub.
Speaking from his Diddly Squat Farm, Clarkson expressed his frustration at the decision. “It’s a cock-up, as usual. I’ve made my biggest, most heartfelt, and frankly, most expensive advert ever, and it’s been banned.
“The fun police in their beige offices have decided that the public can’t be trusted to watch it. It’s been kicked off the telly, silenced on the radio, and barred from the cinema,” he continued.
The presenter questioned the reasoning behind the ban, stating: “Apparently, it’s ‘not compliant’. With what, I have no idea. Common sense?”
Clarkson described the advertisement as “the best thing I’ve ever made, apart from a shepherd’s pie in 1988,” and has since taken to social media to share the banned commercial directly with his followers.
“If the regulators won’t let the people see it, then perhaps the newspapers will. I’m asking every editor in the country: Will you publish my banned ad?” Clarkson appealed.
GB News was invited to the Hawkstone VIP Summer Party at the Farmer’s Dog on Monday, where Clarkson elaborated further on the ban.
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“We decided a few months ago to make a television commercial, a Hawkstone television commercial which we could show in the middle of something like Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, so even in the ad breaks you weren’t deprived of me,” he remarked during a speech on stage.
“Sadly, we made it, at great expense, great difficulty and it’s been banned. Nobody will show it.
“We’re told by the Advertising Standards Authority that it doesn’t meet their high standards. Well, I’m going to show it to you now and let’s see if you can see what the problem is that these people have.”
Once guests were treated to a screening of the commercial, Clarkson reappeared on stage to tell his guests: “Enid Blyton, I happen to know, when she wrote the Famous Five books, she described them as ‘f***ing good’.
“Nobody minded – actually, she probably didn’t. Anyway, we live in a strange world where that’s going to become a social media sensation, I imagine.”