Jaguar boss hits out at ‘vile hatred and intolerance’ after automobile followers turned on agency’s widely-ridiculed woke rebrand
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.
In a new interview, he denied the rebrand exercise – which has ditched the iconic ‘growler’ logo of a big cat and replaced the imposing, all-caps typeface with one that appears to read ‘JaGuar’ – was meant to be a ‘woke’ statement.
The rebrand also demotes the ‘leaper’ cat logo that once decorated the bonnets of all new Jags to a ‘maker’s mark’ – teased as a pop-out port for a reversing camera or parking sensor on a new model to be shown off next week.
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.
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.
Launched on Tuesday under the slogan ‘copy nothing’ – an adage from company founder Sir William Lyons – the ad features diverse models in technicolour outfits walking through an alien landscape.
Around 800 people are reported to have worked on the rebrand, which will peak with the unveiling of a ‘design vision concept’ at Miami Art Week on December 2.
Rawdon Glover, managing director of Jaguar, has fired back at those who criticised the car brand’s much maligned rebrand this week
The new rebrand (above) attracted accusations the company has gone ‘woke’ – after putting out an advert featuring no cars
The advert features boldly dressed fashion models in bright primary colours alongside slogans such as ‘break moulds’ and ‘create exuberant’
Its first real new car, a four-door grand tourer (GT), will go on sale in 2026 and has already been tested in camouflaged prototype form on British roads.
Mr Glover told the Financial Times he believed the overall reaction to the campaign had been ‘very positive’, but that he was disappointed by the ‘level of vile hatred and intolerance’ directed at the models in the advert.
‘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.
‘We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently. We wanted to move away from traditional automotive stereotypes.’
Criticism of the rebrand focused on the perceived dilution of the brand’s classically aggressive identity – from the scrapping of the teeth-baring big cat to the softer, ‘friendlier’ looking typeface.
The diversity of the advert, which features androgynous-looking men and women in exuberant clothes, was also criticised.
Mr Glover says it is not intended to depict Jaguar’s intended customers but added: ‘We do need to attract a new customer base.’
Critics called it ‘woke’ and ‘unhinged’. Some owners even threatened to end their car deals early to, in the words of one, ‘avoid the humiliation of being seen in one again’.
Elon Musk took to his social media platform X to ask if the firm if it sold cars.
In one of many seemingly saccharine responses it sent out in response to online detractors, the firm replied: ‘Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami on 2nd December?’
The video is also a far cry from Jaguar ads of old, like the (now banned) advertisement featuring Sir Ben Kingsley, Mark Strong and Tom Hiddleston purring that villains on TV and in movies ‘all drive Jaguars’.
This is the new Jaguar logo – a roundel made up of the letter ‘J’ that looks the same both ways up
The classic Jaguar ‘growler’ logo has been ditched as the car firm reinvents itself to appeal to a younger audience of car buyers
The classic Jaguar ‘leaper’ bonnet ornament that inspired the decades-old logo. These were scrapped in 2005 – and are now almost gone completely from the firm’s branding
Jaguar has been winding down its model range – with cars such as the F-Pace SUV (above) now relegated to the history books
Instead, Jaguars will look something like this in the near future. This is a prototype of its first all-electric car – a four-door saloon currently hidden behind a camouflage paint job
The new Jaguar logo features largely lower case letters – save for a single capitalised ‘G’ – in what the company is calling a ‘complete reset’
Jaguar says its new philosophy will ‘command attention through fearless creativity’ – a phrase that suggests it knew it would spark a backlash with its new look
All of the changes are a deliberate move to target new, younger buyers: the bold colours trailed in the controversial new ad will be rolled out to Jaguar showrooms to shake off the idea that Jags are stuffy and for the older generation.
Gerry McGovern, the car firm’s design boss, said on Tuesday he wanted to create a ‘jaw-dropping’ redesign that will ‘shock, surprise and polarise’.
‘It will make you feel uncomfortable. That’s fine. The world is not standing still,’ he said at a launch event.
Mr Glover previously told This is Money that Jaguar’s existing customers are not the target market – with as many as 85 per cent of buyers in future expected to be first-time Jag owners.
MailOnline previously reported how brand and culture expert Nick Ede predicted Jaguar would begin drip-feeding teaser images of the new concept car in response to the branding backlash.
And the firm has done just that – showing how it is literally not looking in the rear mirror with an image suggesting its new brand concept lacks a back window.
It’s a styling trick similar to other new EVs like the Polestar 4 and the Tesla Cybertruck, which both eschew rear windscreens to create more headroom in the back, replacing the glass with cameras.
And further images released by Jaguar high-ups on social media show the ‘leaper’ – flipped to face to the right as a sign the company is ‘always leaping forward’ – on a pop-out port on the concept car.
Images suggest it conceals a form of camera or sensor.
A still from Jaguar’s ‘copy nothing’ rebrand advert – which was criticised for featuring no cars
Teaser images of the new Jaguar concept set to be unveiled in Miami suggest the car will not have a rear windscreen
Jaguar’s head of global brand strategy and insight, Richard Green, shared images of a pop-out panel on the concept car
The panel, which features the new IBM-inspired Jaguar leaper logo, appears to conceal a rear-facing camera or sensor
Gerry McGovern, Jaguar’s chief creative officer, is unapologetic over the redesign. He said yesterday: ‘It will make you feel uncomfortable. That’s fine’
The company has struggled in recent years as it has gradually downsized its range to a handful of models: the XE and XF executive saloons, the E-Pace and F-Pace SUVs, and the I-Pace electric car.
Production of these cars is being wound down as Jaguar takes a year out of the car market to prepare itself for the future.
After the GT model is released, a two-door ‘fastback’ coupe reminiscent of a Jaguar E-Type and an SUV model are expected to follow.
The rebrand is not Jaguar’s first – and is arguably not its most dramatic.
Founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company in 1922, it became SS Cars in 1934 before the Jaguar name was adopted in 1945 to avoid any association with the SS Nazi paramilitary group.
The ‘leaping’ Jaguar logo was introduced as a bonnet ornament the same year – and stayed on cars for 60 years until EU safety regulations all but killed them off.
And in 1957, the legendary ‘growler’ logo was introduced, featuring a roaring big cat at the centre of a red badge.
Jaguar’s logo then evolved in 1982 to feature the name in a regal font with the animal leaping to the left and remained that way for 42 years.
The debate over the revamp has prompted questions of whether the huge amount of attention will ultimately be to the company’s benefit.
The ad drew in 161 million views on X alone, with the video also put on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. But experts say this might not translate into sales.
PR expert Mayah Riaz told MailOnline earlier this week: ‘Jaguar are being very ambitious. Maybe they knew what they were doing. But I think it’s a shame because it’s losing their history, the legacy of the brand. It’s too much.
‘People say there’s no such thing as bad publicity but this will be a test of that.’
Shares in Tata Motors Ltd, the Indian firm that owns Jaguar, rose almost 3 per cent in the days following the unveiling of the Jaguar rebrand.
