Go back through your memory and think about how many major brands have been ruined through woke advocacy or worse, woke marketing. I can guarantee you won't be able to name them all because it's happened to so many that you've likely forgotten at least half of them.
You know the big ones. Disney, Bud Light, the NFL, but there was one brand, in particular, that was beyond odd to watch adopt the woke marketing strategy. Not just because the marketing approach made no sense at all, but because it was so uncharacteristic of the brand.
As my friend and colleague Ward Clark recently covered, Jaguar is in something of a tactical retreat from its disastrous ad campaign that featured pastel-colored models straight out of an avant-garde Paris runway show—and zero cars. The ad was so bad that Jaguar seemed to distance itself from the ad agency that made the commercial, though they claimed it had nothing to do with the ad at all.
Jaguar was apparently going all-in on electric cars, but as Clark reports, that's not happening, and they're returning to good ol' fossil fuel. That said, it's not a complete retreat from its "new direction":
Jaguar hasn't gone completely unwoke yet. This isn't a big, tough V-12 they are dropping in these new Jags. It's a hybrid, and looks to be an anemic one, at that. Oh, I know, electric motors put out a surprising amount of torque and can be pretty quick; but if I'm looking for a high-performance sports car, then I want the steady, reliable rumble of a powerful gasoline-powered motor under the hood.
Is Jaguar really missing the market cues that badly? Their latest concept car apparently looks like something out of a Barbie cartoon. We can only hope their advertising is not so morbidly clueless, although I wouldn't bet a penny, or a farthing, or a groat, or whatever the Brits use for the smallest measure of currency on it.
Read: From Androgynous Ads to Engine Revival: Jaguar's Sort of Rebrand Retreat
I could talk all day about how modern leftist ideology ruins everything it touches. I've definitely been writing about it here on this website for years, but I feel like Jaguar is one of those instances where you can really see how destructive it all is.
Jaguar was something of a romantic brand. It wasn't just a car; it was a culture, and while it wasn't a culture that was always smiled upon, it was still something you drove because the car had a certain air to it.
One of my favorite things was watching Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond talk about Jaguars and their owners. You could tell they appreciated the cars even while making fun of them and their drivers.
Jaguar wasn't just a car brand like a Honda or a Ford. There was something of a subculture around it that was popular around the world. What's more, this culture seemed to be the opposite of woke, or at the very least, it seemed a world outside any that would be affected by woke culture. The tribalism that came with Jaguar cars seemed particularly in its tastes. Whether it was luxurious or a Bond villain vibe, the brand seemed concerned with itself, not the politics of the age.
Yet, the company decided to ditch the romance that came with its reputation, the blood that fueled its fandom, and exchanged it for what I can only describe as a TikTok-coded marketing approach that was supposed to appeal to people who, frankly, never had any intention to buy a Jaguar in their lives, and likely wouldn't even after the campaign.
Even now, I'm not entirely sure why they did it. The move doesn't make sense in the least from a business perspective, but if you look at how these marketing teams operate, you can guess that they practically scared the company into it through manipulation and lies about modern culture. That would be my best guess anyway.
Now it seems there's a slight move back toward the Jaguar for what it's more recognizable as, but I can't help but wonder if that's going to help it. Time will tell, but to be honest, if Jaguar had a prestige to it, its recent marketing stunt dealt that prestige a heavy blow and one that it won't come back from for a few years. If anything, it might be better if it didn't, not because I have anything against Jaguar, but because I think it would be a great lesson for future businesses to reflect on.
It's good for any company to try to keep up with the times, but it should never do so at the expense of its soul or the tribe that formed around it. It'd be like if Ruth's Chris suddenly ditched its focus on steaks and upper-middle-class dining, and rebranded itself as a smoothie bar for influencers. It wouldn't exactly go over well, and those influencers probably aren't going to show up regularly except as a curiosity.
As sad as it is that it came to this, I hope every other business is watching.
