Jaguar exec promises his team have not been ‘sniffing the white stuff’ as the luxury carmaker’s rebrand receives online backlash
If there is one charitable thing to say about Jaguar’s new brand campaign, it’s that people are, at the very least, finally talking about the ailing UK carmaker again. A new spot that aired on social media on Tuesday went viral with over 22 million views already on X—and not in a good way.
The 30-second ad features several ethnically diverse and largely gender-fluid models dressed in matching androgynous outfits set against loud colors, promising Jaguar will “break moulds”, “delete ordinary” and “copy nothing”.
With not a car in sight, Jaguar Land Rover’s chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, was forced to promise reporters his team had “not been sniffing the white stuff” when they came up with it.
Jaguar’s reboot, complete with its postmodern aesthetic and logo, comes ahead of an all-new EV-only lineup arriving in 2026.
It is potentially a last-ditch attempt to save the once venerable carmaker.
Annual sales for the fiscal year through March 2024 amounted to just 67,000 vehicles, well below the 115,000 units sibling brand Land Rover sold with its rugged Defender SUV model alone.
In the first half of fiscal 2025, Jaguar sales fell over 40% to roughly 14,000 cars, accounting for just 8% of Jaguar Land Rover volumes.
Perhaps it’s no surprise that Jaguar managing director Rawdon Glove spoke about his marque in a statement as if it were already comatose, if not outright deceased.
Acknowledging the reality of its dwindling relevance, Glove said he didn’t have the luxury of being timid.
“To bring back such a globally renowned brand, we had to be fearless,” he said of the campaign on Tuesday, calling it a “complete reset.”
The revealing of its Design Vision Concept on December 2 during Miami Art Week will give a first taste of what is to come for “New Jaguar.”
Musk mocks brand campaign online
The problem is that to be effective, brand campaigns need to deliver on their promise with actual products that live up to the claims made.
And for the moment, Jaguar has little to show for itself.
Last week it stopped selling new cars in its home UK market, and other markets will eventually follow as it eliminates the last vestiges of its combustion engine past.
Everything is, therefore, riding on its upcoming event early next month.
But its recent history hasn’t exactly suggested Jaguar will “break moulds”.
The ad has, therefore, been widely met with resounding ridicule online.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk mockingly asked, “Do you sell cars?” while others derided what appears to be a message of diversity, equity, and inclusion—now firmly out of fashion in the United States.
One user on X summed up the spot as “when you walk into the elevator and the entire DEI department is there.”
Execs are now left wondering whether all this free publicity will help or hurt its brand reset.
Fortune has contacted Jaguar for a statement about the spot’s reception but has not yet received a response.
Jaguar’s long descent into irrelevance
Best known for its classic 1960s E-Type coupe, which oozed style with its characteristic elongated bonnet, Jaguar never really recovered from its disastrous period under Ford.
During its ownership by the U.S. carmaker, the brand was hollowed out from within through mass-market cars like the X-Type.
The sedan became one of the worst examples of badge engineering: underneath, it was a bastardized version of the Ford Mondeo with a bit of Jaguar styling and logo slapped on top, a monstrosity that diluted its brand equity and horrified the loyal fan base.
Under its current owner Tata Motors, which bought Jaguar and Land Rover sixteen years ago in a packaged deal, the UK carmaker attempted a revival.
Jaguar launched for the first time in its history SUVs like the F-Pace and briefly grabbed industry accolades with its I-Pace electric crossover, but the damage had already been done.
Rebirth nearly four years in the planning
Now execs clearing out the entire range as part of a reboot first mapped out under a vastly different landscape.
Back in February 2021, during the height of the EV bubble, the then-head of Tata’s Jaguar Land Rover division, Thierry Bolloré, unveiled his “Reimagine” plan, which would see Jaguar move to an EV-only lineup four years later.
At the time, that seemed like the obvious move, as EVs appeared to be well-positioned to replace combustion-engine cars.
Clean, quiet propulsion technology has been viewed as superior in performance to gas cars, with smooth, swift acceleration from a standstill minus the clouds of pollutant-laden smoke belching from tailpipes.
This proved overly optimistic, though, with EV adoption slowing to a crawl in western markets.
Now even pioneer Tesla doesn’t bother selling investors on the technology, having pivoted its messaging to what Musk calls “real-world AI”: autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.
But JLR still needs EVs for CO2 regulatory compliance in order to continue selling heavy, thirsty, yet comparatively profitable, Land Rover SUVs across Europe.
And there’s reason to believe it may have some success with that approach.
Next year sees a phase-in of new fleet emission targets for carmakers in the European Union that will require an even larger proportion of EVs in a manufacturer’s sales mix.
By the time Jaguar’s first EVs arrive, the technology may have finally gone mainstream in Europe.
However, whether buyers may want the kind of car it plans to unveil next month is another issue entirely. For the moment, though, its boss remains optimistic.
“I am excited for the world to finally see Jaguar,” Glover said.
