Gorgeous is the little black dress of multimedia campaigns; it could fit nicely as a campaign for Tiffany's, De Beers or Chanel. On JaguarUSA.com, a glimpse of a little black dress on the home page actually creates an immediate association with the off-line trans-Atlantic campaign. The same can be sensed on the Canadian, British, and French websites; on the French site, Parisians actually enjoy a lively, Flash-animated Season's Greetings montage of beautiful people getting festive to the tune of the Nutcracker. It is much more compelling than the still model, however gorgeous.

The campaign set up its own website at PreferGorgeous.com, which does live up to the expectations of contemporary 360-degree branding. However, in this case, the main Flash animation happens to be a mere montage of still photographs. It doesn't deliver.

For scholars and other erudite enthusiasts, there is some interesting material stored on this campaign's server, such as Jaguar's letter, dated 1 March 1968, to a young Ian Callum, who would become the talented designer of today's Jaguars. Unfortunately, the usability of the interface is simply too circumvallated to exploit it properly; content is more likely chanced upon than directed to. While the art direction is high-class and the site nice to look at, all the images strike the same note, and the information lies buried in the glossy veneer. The impact of this site on consumers is therefore questionable, either as a brand builder or as sales support.

Perhaps Jaguar should have been more modest in its ambition of delivering the new campaign over 360 degrees. The effort obviously over-promised and under-delivered. In attempting to convey a lifestyle of indulgence, Jaguar seems to have created a website that overindulges in itself.