Jaguar bombed their brand, now what?

Jaguar has been low hanging fruit for countless ‘Linkedin Influencers’ desperate for more followers, to sound clever and get your to ‘read this 👇 !’

This recent Creative Boom article however I enjoyed reading. It’s detailed, balanced and lists clear takeaways you can action or consider.
Here’s the infamous campaign video that managed to do the majority of the damage…

My take is…
Whilst I admire the acceptance and the effort to drive, fully committed into something new. And I also agree with the visual language generally to move into a space that is both luxurious, bold, bright, exciting and ‘away from the norm’. It’s also clear that it’s came at a time where reading the room was required. It’s a time where honouring traditions (or not) is sensitive, political narratives being either liberal, conservative or just downright misinformed (via false or faux outrage) have reached the forefront of many customers thoughts. People are exhausted with news cycles, cheap clicks and poor quality content.

It’s clear that this ad, whilst cleary created to break norms and rattle some cages… poked the wasp nest too much. (And that’s coming from me who I consider some what of an anarchist). Ultimately managing to both send the conservative audience into a rage and confuse of alienate others.

Suggestions:
• Backing up this approach with some subtle, teaser shots of the concept car would have helped. It’s details, materials, interactions. More of a ‘Hey we’re doing something radical here… here’s a teaser of how cool this is going to be”.
• Therefore naturally resulting in – making it less about the people / models. None of whom seems to be particularly relatable to at a guess probably 95% of Jaguar’s potential audience. There’s a somewhat ‘alien’ vibe to the whole thing coming from a blend of factors such as wardrobe direction, model choice and the personality on display – which was generally speaking a bizarre mix of moodiness and arrogance while wearing bright pink and yellow suits. All round, a big miss.

Why do I care? 🧐
Well, I recently bought and sold Jaguar’s finest cat. A 2021 F-Pace SVR, from a garage in Al Quos, it had only 70km on the clock, in Hakabu Silver. Plus, being a European import I got it for a bargain price. I absolutely adored it. But I also understood the reality that Jaguar had arrived at a place with a limited global appeal and going fully electric was a strategic decision by JLR… making fully electric Range Rovers just wasn’t going to happen.

Before hand, I had owned an electric Polestar 2 Performance, another brand and car I connected with. So I was fully experienced in the world of electric and gasoline vehicles, anticipating the inevitable announcement Jaguar would be making. Alas, since relocating to Korea, I have changed my ride once again, to a so far fantastic Kia Sorento (4WD Gravity) which for the price, has blown my mind. 30% the cost of the Jaguar in fact.