It seems like everybody has weighed in on Jaguar’s controversial rebranding campaign, and that now includes Donald Trump.
A whole nine months after Jaguar trotted out a diverse cast of models wearing futuristic, boldly coloured garb in its infamous Copy Nothing advertisement campaign, the sitting US president has come out swinging against the “woke” rebrand of the Indian-owned British luxury brand.
In a post on his Truth Social platform defending actress Sydney Sweeney, he said Jaguar produced a “stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement” which he called a “DISASTER”.
“The CEO just resigned in disgrace, and the company is in absolute turmoil,” his post reads. “Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad.”
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He then segued into criticism of Bud Lite’s advertising, singer Taylor Swift, and other topics scarcely worth discussing on an automotive website.
The retirement of JLR CEO Adrian Mardell was announced earlier this month. He will be replaced on November 1 by the chief financial officer of parent company Tata Motors, PB Balaji.
Mr Mardell is a 35-year veteran at the firm, and signed a three-year contract in mid-2023 to serve as CEO, replacing Thierry Bolloré who quit suddenly for “personal reasons” after just two years in the role, and after announcing in 2021 that the Jaguar brand would go all-electric and be positioned further upmarket.
The term ‘woke’ once meant to be alert to racial injustice, but figures like President Trump have come to commonly use it as a pejorative term to mean anything from excessive political correctness to diversity, equity and inclusion campaigns at government agencies.
Under his administration, terms like ‘climate change’ have also been referred to as woke.
Whether you’d call it ‘woke’ or simply unconventional or even weird, Jaguar’s initial Copy Nothing advertisement in November 2024 featured models of different genders, ethnicities and ages, all in brightly coloured outfits and some with unusual haircuts or makeup, and set against brightly coloured backdrop.
However, there wasn’t a car to be seen. Just a day or so later, Jaguar teased its Type 00 concept, before pulling the wraps off in December.
Riding a new dedicated electric vehicle (EV) platform that doesn’t support combustion powertrains, the Type 00 concept previews a trio of production vehicles that will see Jaguar repositioned from being a British BMW rival to more of an electric Bentley alternative.
The first of these production vehicles is set to debut in 2026.
In short, higher prices and lower sales volumes will be the order of the day at Jaguar, which has also received a new wordmark to go with its dramatically different design language.
Positioning Jaguar in the volume premium vehicle segment, where it competed against Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and Audi – a strategy developed when Ford Motor Company owned the brand and continued under Tata’s ownership – proved an expensive failure.
Jaguar never got anywhere near selling the 600,000 vehicles a year it needed to be profitable, which perhaps explains why parent JLR has made such a bold move to completely throw out this model.
Having the more stable, profitable Land Rover brand – or, as JLR puts it, the Defender, Discovery and Range Rover marques in its House of Brands – gives the automaker cover to carry out this reinvention.
Mr Mardell called it a “complete reset”, and JLR expects only 10-15 per cent of Jaguar’s existing customer base will stay with the brand.
Jaguar’s rebranding may have been controversial, but it arguably generated more mainstream buzz with one advertisement and one concept car than at any time in decades.
The initial teaser video is sitting at 4.7m views and close to 48,000 comments on YouTube, and has generated countless comments across social media. While much of this commentary has been negative, the campaign has nevertheless put Jaguar back in the public consciousness.
It’s not just Jaguar fans and world leaders that have criticised the rebranding, however.
A letter from Jaguar’s internal design team to chief creative officer Gerry McGovern was shared by Autocar India, with team members criticising aspects of the rebranding efforts that were led by external agency Accenture Interactive. JLR is reportedly conducting a review of its account with the firm.
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