British luxury vehicle company Jaguar has defended itself against backlash from internet users over its rebranding—including a new logo in a colorful new advertisement—with both fans and anti-“woke” critics ripping the ad’s diversity.
Jaguar posted the new advertisement to its social media accounts Tuesday, featuring a diverse group of models in brightly colored outfits as messages like “live vivid” and “delete ordinary” appear onscreen, accompanied with the caption: “Copy nothing.”
The advertisement, and new profile pictures across Jaguar’s social media accounts, unveil a new logo with a different, more simplistic font that contains both capital and lowercase letters and a revamped Jaguar “leaper” image.
The ad sparked immediate blowback online: nearly all the top-liked Instagram comments on Jaguar’s post are critical, with the top comment, liked more than 13,000 times, claiming the company “killed a British icon.”
In a press release, Jaguar said the advertisement marks the “reveal of a completely reimagined brand” focused on artistic expression, stating the “next stage in the transformation of Jaguar” will be revealed Dec. 2 at Miami Art Week.
Jaguar also posted another image to social media Wednesday night, teasing what appears to be an upcoming electric car model, though it was similarly met with critical reactions online.
Crucial Quote
“Our brand relaunch for Jaguar is a bold and imaginative reinvention and as expected it has attracted attention and debate,” Jaguar Land Rover spokesperson Joseph Stauble said in a statement to Forbes, defending the rebrand from backlash. Stauble said the company “preserved iconic symbols while taking a dramatic leap forward” and said the company will share “more on Jaguar’s transformation in the coming days and weeks.”
Chief Critics
Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk pointed out the lack of vehicles in Jaguar’s ad in a post on X, asking: “Do you sell cars?” Musk’s post was liked more than 164,000 times—much more than the 9,000 likes the Jaguar ad garnered—and was viewed nearly 3 million times. Jaguar’s advertisement garnered 62,000 replies on X, many critical, with one of the top replies stating the ad must be “surely a joke” and another urging consumers to boycott the company. Nigel Farage, a British Member of Parliament and leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, posted a video to X claiming Jaguar “will go bust” and compared the ad to “another Bud Light moment,” referencing last year’s boycotts against the beer brand following its brief marketing partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bev Turner, a British television host on the conservative-leaning GB News channel, said the ad looked like Jaguar asked artificial intelligence to create the “wokest, most pretentious, gender-ambiguous piece of self-satisfied A-level art.” Some anti-“woke” social media users circulated a month-old video of a Jaguar brand director voicing a commitment to “fostering a diverse, inclusive and unifying culture,” slamming the emphasis on diversity as “woke.” Several companies also posted faux-rebrands with deliberately poor graphic design to mock Jaguar, including another car company, Lucid Motors, as well as gaming company Razer and British eyewear retailer Specsavers.
