The boss of Jaguar has defended the legendary British car marque’s dramatic rebrand this week after critics called a new advert ‘woke’ and pointed out that it doesn’t feature any cars.
Rawdon Glover, managing director of the Indian-owned firm, also hit out at the ‘vile hatred and intolerance’ directed at the eccentric-looking models who appeared in the video released on November 18.
They are supposed to be a luxury car maker. Weird models prancing about has nothing to do with cars. Pointing this out is perfectly valid. As usual, when these people are called out for trashing a brand, they blame the consumers who decide not to play.
Mr Glover denied that the firm was throwing away its near-100-year heritage with its most dramatic rebrand in decades – instead claiming the car maker needed to step away from ‘traditional automotive stereotypes’ to find its place in the market.
You are selling cars. People want to see what car you are trying to sell, not a bunch of weirdos poncing about.
Jag’s big rebrand had been in development for three years as the company prepares to become an all-electric car manufacturer ahead of the UK’s 2030 target to stop selling new purely fossil fuel-powered cars.
This is a bigger problem, though. Clearly consumer resistance to the milk float idea has passed him by. That his woke rebrand has gone down like a bowl of cold vomit is probably the least of his problems. But either way, blame the customer, why not? It’s bound to work.
‘If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,’ Glover said.
You are an auto brand, you twat.
“…claiming the car maker needed to step away from ‘traditional automotive stereotypes’ to find its place in the market.”
This has to be one of the stupidest things that I’ve heard this week. If you try to sell me a car while not mentioning cars I’m going to be suspicious that your product is a bit suspect. My car is a Ssangyong, they don’t do much advertising at all. It is a great car and I see quite a lot of them around, they must be doing something right.
Oh, I dunno. if they are going to produce only electric cars which will appeal to a very small percentage of the population, then targeting the weirdos and mentally unhinged (which are an equally very small percentage of the population) is possibly a good fit.
As for people that are wealthy enough and have enough passion to want what Jaguar represented in the past, they will avoid the brand and buy elsewhere. The Jaguar brand will crash and burn harder and faster than an incoming ICBM. You could test this hypothesis by going into a bookies and see what odds they will offer of Jaguar as a brand/company still existing in, say, 5 years. I doubt you’ll get rich on the bet paying off.
He’ll find the trans luxury EV market is very small place in the market.
Geniuses whoever sold this crap to jAguLar or whatever. I really have the greatest admiration for snake oil salespeeps who can do this and get paid shed loads and get away with it. An amazing skill.
Been happening for years – see Bill Gates and the microsoft shit that we were peddled. Always rubbish, but by thunder looks cool. (Mind you gave me a living fixing their crap). Apple, car makers and far too many to mention.
Just a shame that the snake oilers didn’t work for the benefit of humanity. We would probably be living in utopia. Oh no, sorry we would just think we were, after all they don’t actually do anything.
Joking aside, selling is a very underrated skill
A few things. The advert is shit but why get all angry and hatey about it, just don’t buy the product. Gillette learned their lesson that insulting their target audience was a bad idea and changed their ads to reflect that. They took a hit but remained the leading brand for shaving products. In Jaguar’s case they seem to be missing the target audience completely. Is advertising a bit like the Jedi mind trick, it only works on the weak minded? The only adverts that I am ever influenced by are the ones that inform me of the existence of a product that I wasn’t previously aware of. I find celebrity endorsements to be particularly bizarre. Occasionally the celeb will have some relevant expertise but not usually. I’m not into rampant consumerism but I do buy stuff. At the moment I’m updating my woodwork shop and I bought a new table saw. I looked at what was available and bought the one that I thought best served my needs and that was in my price range.
Although I’m not angry, I do believe that it is justified. Yet another company jumping onto the woke bandwagon and thereby insulting their core market. As for Gillette – I’ve never gone back. They hate me, why should I buy their product?
Like you, adverts only work if it is a product that I am interested in buying in the first place. I do use them for market research before committing when I’m looking for something. If I was looking for a luxury car, Jaguar would be crossed off my list, frankly.
Personally I’d have crossed them off as soon as I saw “all electric”. Someone might be able to convince me to buy an EV for specific purposes (e.g. commuting, especially if stuck with a commute into some “ULEZ”) but you get a Jag for fun and image and wind in your hair and the rumble of a V12.
And that’s probably the point. Hardly anyone wants what they are now selling in any case, so who cares about the adverts. They will pump out woke propaganda, maybe suck at the Government teat if there are any green subsidies to be had, then Tata will close them down and win a few more brownie points for cutting emissions.
As seen on Sky News Australia, their “Brand Director” made a speech all about DEI but with nothing at all about actually selling cars. They just aren’t bothered about that part of the business at all.
There was a brief window where I might have fallen into that category. Once it became a government mandate, that window snapped shut. I will do nothing to enable these people.
Whatever.
Jaguar can advertise however they want. Weirdo freaks poncing around. Naked supermodels draped all over a car. Exciting footage of their car racing around a track. Puppies and kittens frolicking in the car interior.
It won’t work because I’m not going to buy an electric car.
I’m also not going to buy a modern car. Too much crap in them like the ADAS systems that beep at you for not looking out of the windscreen or apply the brakes randomly because a car has slightly pulled forward of a white line at a junction or the lane keeping systems that fight you for control all the time.
I’m keeping my current truck.
Its amusing to see companies that have previously done well via being reasonably traditional self immolate, i’m another who hasn’t touched a Gillette product since the ads and won’t ever again, just one of quite a long list of various companies now.
Not for woke nonsense, but in my industry i’ve seen big operators (some 800 and more specialised trucks) remove whole swathes of time served/proven management and replace them with new, often clueless outsiders, to run the very specialised sector they are taking over, within 3 or 4 years what was a growing market leader crumbles and gets swallowed up by asset strippers…which was maybe the plan all along.
Maybe the question should be, who gains and how if a company dies and who is behind it all.
eg is the land worth more for housing or other use than the present operation on said land? could there be other reasons? is the plan to denude Britain of all self sufficency, currently the target is family farms.
All of this is forgetting one fact which shouldn’t be ignored, in the UK we have among the highest business energy costs in the world, which are only set to rise ever higher as those calling the shots get ever giddier or are they getting richer and more ingratiated with the powerful by doing as bidden.
I don’t understand the idea of we’re making a new product so we have to alienate our old customers. You’re going to need your old customers if/when the new product doesn’t sell and you have to return to your roots.
Bored Panda have picked up on the bizarre Jaguar ads. They aren’t hating though, just taking the piss.
https://www.boredpanda.com/jaguar-marketing-woke-commercial/?cexp_id=110903&cexp_var=1&_f=featured
This from the company that made the iconic E-Type.