Mindbogglingly stupid.
Not only do i not like the branding itself, i think that’s going to be the beginning of the final chapter of Jaguar. I know quite a few people won’t like the way i’ll spell it out now, but there’s two proper moronic things happening here.
A: the marketing itself. Antagonising the “old white man” in favour of “liberal young empowered youth” is absolutely bonkers when you consider that the first new car in the line up is going to cost north of £100k. Blue haired Kevin the Starbucks Barrista and IPA connoisseur is not going to be able to afford it. So they essentially ditch their established customer base, because no one there is going to click with drag queens or whatever the frick those androgynous things are supposed to represent – and the people who do click with it, likely Gen Z, can’t afford it. Not even close.
B: british exceptionalism. It’s as stupid as american exceptionalism. No, Jaguar isn’t a big player anymore, and hasn’t been for a long time. They should act accordingly, accept humbly the position they’re in, and then work from that. There was nothing wrong with the brand itself, it was even meme-worthy (for youngsters) with Clarksons “Jaaaaag” comment that even established itself in the US. What was wrong was A: using ford parts in places where you’d expect Jaguar parts, leading to people simply calling them “prettier fords” and B: thinking themselves better than any other premium manufacturer, and not offering a volume model while not understanding the importance of 4 cylinder engines and diesels in the market for way too long.
Jaguar isn’t Rolls Royce. They can’t afford to act like they are. Decades of mismanagement led to this point, and instead of FINALLY fixing the issue and start targeting markets where they can sell cars, they start targeting people who can’t afford them in the first place – and even if they could, they’d probably move to “greener” alternatives where the leather isn’t from animals etc (though it’d be funny if they offer a 100k car with artificial leather or cloth) and cost less than half that.
This entire campaign is one thing: a narcissistic exercise by a stereotypical gay person, marketing to his friends. And don’t take this as homophobic or something – the guy is built like a rugby player, wears hotpants and blouse opened to the stomach with his husband, holding a cockapoo. Those marketing images are aimed at him.
Just absolutely mindboggling.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.