Woke Rebrand Sends Jaguar Sales Into a 98% Death Plunge
The widely mocked 30-second spot featured a racially diverse group of genderfluid individuals dressed in garish, brightly colored clothing.
Last November, British sports car and luxury vehicle manufacturer Jaguar kicked off a major rebranding campaign on social media. According to finance website FinBold, the fierce backlash to their very first ad caused shares of Jaguar’s parent company, Tata Motors, to fall on a day when most other prices were rallying on the National Stock Exchange of India.
The widely mocked 30-second spot featured a racially diverse group of genderfluid individuals dressed in garish, brightly colored clothing. As the dour-faced actors emerged from what looked like a bright yellow pod, electronic music played in the background. Messages appeared intermittently on the screen that read: “create exuberant,” “live vivid,” “delete ordinary,” “break moulds,” “copy nothing,” and finally the brand name was displayed. “Jaguar” was written using a combination of lower- and uppercase letters.
Copy nothing. #Jaguar pic.twitter.com/BfVhc3l09B
— Jaguar (@Jaguar) November 19, 2024
It goes without saying that many on social media made the inevitable comparison between the new Jaguar ad and Bud Light’s inexplicable decision in April 2023 to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney to promote the sale of a product that has appealed to working-class, ordinary, and decidedly unwoke people for generations. The move led to a boycott and an initial $5 billion decline in market capitalization for Anheuser-Busch, the brand’s parent company.
Noticing that there wasn’t a car to be seen anywhere in the broadly ridiculed ad, Elon Musk asked, “Do you sell cars?”
Do you sell cars?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 19, 2024
The company responded to Musk: “Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami on 2nd December? Warmest regards, Jaguar.”
One commenter suggested they fire their marketing team.
Fire your marketing team. No one wants this kind of stuff anymore. pic.twitter.com/K3MgPXdQs9
— Big Buff Daddy Body Duck (@springfieldduck) November 19, 2024
Another came remarkably close to estimating the small fraction of the population that would find the new ad appealing.
We love the classic Jaguar because it’s a beautiful car. You obviously care little about the car – just pushing your ideology. You’re relying on the approximately 1% or less of the population who are trans and their Marxist comrades in arms to purchase a very expensive car.…
— RoPal (@travelnut333) November 22, 2024
Forbes reported at the time that the ad was widely mocked on Instagram as well. “Nearly all the top-liked Instagram comments on Jaguar’s post are critical, with the top comment, liked more than 13,000 times, claiming the company ‘killed a British icon.’” Indeed, they did.
The Daily Mail reported that the man behind Jaguar’s woke rebrand, Santino Pietrosanti, is a “BLM-supporting executive from New York who lives with [his] Scottish husband and their cockapoo Mia.”
Santino Pietrosanti, an italian gay who disintegrated 102 years of a legendary car manufacturer reputation in a day.🌹 pic.twitter.com/SSK14RzS04
— Giovanni Colombo 🌹 (@X__GC__X) November 21, 2024
According to the Mail, Pietrosanti had spoken at Virgin Atlantic’s “Attitude Awards” event two months earlier and “boasted that Jaguar had ‘established over 15 DEI groups’ as part of a ‘transformative journey.’” Clad in “a spangled dinner jacket over a see-through t-shirt,” he told the crowd that the rebrand would “bring Jaguar back to something truly special.” Here are some excerpts from his remarks:
We’re not just talking about new cars. We are talking about all new ways of thinking and embracing the full spectrum of human potential and creativity.
Because Jaguar has always stood for fearless originality striving to be a copy of nothing. And we believe that every person has the potential to be something unique, something original, and that’s what makes us strong.
And at Jaguar we proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community because we know that originality and creativity thrives in spaces where people are free to be themselves.
We’re passionate about our people and we’re committed to fostering a diverse inclusive and unified culture that is representative of not only the people who use our products but in a society in which we all live.
By 2024, Jaguar had fallen on hard times according to Marketing Week’s Mark Ritson.
Ritson (who sounds like he once drove — and loved — a Jaguar or two) was extremely critical of the company’s rebranding. He wrote:
Oh f***, Jaguar, what have you done?
I appreciate things have not been easy in recent years. That your once sparkling reputation has been tarnished by poor reliability and a garage full of often average cars. That you’ve been traded from one parent company to another with barely a thought for your brand. And that when you landed at Tata Motors you had to face the ignominy of being outshone by sister brand Land Rover. For every Jaguar sold last year they shifted six.
He predicted, “That ratio will disappear completely next year, when Jaguar stops producing or selling anything. For the next 12 months, perhaps longer, the company will make nothing but headlines.”
“Jaguar has rebranded when it needed to revitalize,” Ritson explained. “Jaguar’s bizarre new campaign marks a complete overhaul of its positioning, when instead it should have celebrated and updated what once made it great.”
But, according to Ritson, “Jaguar no longer cares about retaining its current customer base. … The company expects to retain only 10% to 15% of its current customer base. Jaguar will shift its targeting to younger, wealthier, more urban shoppers that the company describes as ‘design-minded’ and ‘cash-rich, time-poor.’”
Well, here we are just seven months later and Jaguar sales have not just fallen, they have practically disintegrated. In addition to the rebrand, the company has also transitioned to an all-EV lineup.
The Economic Times is reporting a nearly 98% drop in sales for April from a year earlier. According to the Times, “only 49 Jaguar vehicles were registered in Europe in April 2025, a 97.5% drop compared to 1,961 units in the same month last year. Year-to-date sales between January and April fell 75.1%, with just 2,665 cars sold across the continent.”
Everyone who witnessed the rollout of Jaguar’s rebrand last fall could have predicted the company’s current disaster.
It really is true — go woke, go broke.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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Comments
jaguar lost their class and their a. ss
The Daily Mail reported that the man behind Jaguar’s woke rebrand, Santino Pietrosanti, is a “BLM-supporting executive from New York who lives with [his] Scottish husband and their cockapoo Mia.”
imagine that!!?!!
… who lives with [his] Scottish “husband” and their cockapoo Mia.
There, FIFY.
.
You missed replacing “cockapoo” with “dog” or “mutt”.
Since he has a “husband” (LOL) the cockapoo has nothing to do with any pet in the house.
They should have hired Jeremy Clarkson and pushed his deliberative manner of saying, “It’s a Jaaaaaaag”.
Instead, they hired weirdos and freaks.
They chose…POORLY.
Being how I am, no objection to the male spouse.
But… a COCKAPOO??? Dear lord, no. One step above the shit-zoo or the chihuahua for annoyance value.
I may play for the other team, but I still want a DOG.
Retrievers. Rotties, GSDs, King Shepherds, Shiba Inus, Huskies, Beagles. DOGS!
“Woof! Woof! That’s my other dog impression.” – Oddball
Nothing sells luxury like false pretense. Those that can afford one have no use for reality.
fun is a reality
and then reality is fun
Decades ago, my brother had one of those XJ sedans with the V-12 in it. Now THAT was an automobile. Accelerated like a gut-shot cat, the most amazing and comfortable interior known to man.
To this day, a lot of folks take out blown or worn-out Jag motors and put in Chevy V8s. This is so common folks like Hurst make conversion kits. The dollar-watch reliability of a Chevy motor and transmission with comfort just this side of heaven.
(The most interesting conversion I saw was out in Cat City California. A pre-Geely Volvo wagon with the 4-cylinder turbocharged Camaro motor and 8-speed auto slipped in. Outside it was bone-stock. Talk about a sleeper!)
yup
knew someone with that jag>>chevy v8!
when the car ran ( cause yeah..it was still a jag 🙂 it flew!!
The later Jags had virtually all the bugs worked out, with decent electrics and build quality.
Not just an ad that says nothing about Jaguar cars, but the “people” in it creep me out worse than what passes for animation in children’s entertainment today, clowns, and overly friendly clergy.
What in the world were they thinking at the ad agency? What in the world were they thinking at Jeggy-wah to green-light this atrocity?
“the “people” in it creep me out”
I cant decide which gives me more jeebies — the Cabbage Patch Kenyan, the Steel Drivin’ Tran, or the chick who got her ‘do from the DOT tree-clearance trimmer.
Obviously the “gay” Italian is a plant by Ferrari and Alfa Romeo to destroy Jaguar. If not, then it was brand suicide.
Drinking Bud Lite all the way down too.
Paraphrasing Scott Adams, next time, just ask Pete.
This revolting display of sexual deprivation could not have been more damaging if one of Jaguar’s competitors had hired the cast of Top Gear to write it.
Don’t think Ferrari is concerned with Jag. Different market and wait time for a new Ferrari, if you get on a dealer’s, list is about three years.
Screw that; I’d find one of the big Chevy dealers with Corvettes in stock and go buy one. I don’t need a brand name. No Steinway in the living room, and no Ferrari in the garage.
And you’re only getting on that list after you’ve purchased some used stock from that same dealership.
Jaguar peaked with the XK-E (one of the most beautiful cars ever produced) kept its head above water with the XJ-S (still a somewhat pretty car) but lost it afterwards with cars that you couldn’t pick out of a lineup and wouldn’t want if they were offered as prizes.
It’s a pity this clown isn’t Japanese. Then he could commit suicide to atone for his stupidity and destruction.
lol!
Jaguar lost all its appeal when Ford bought it. They were so unreliable that the warranty card entitled the owner to a premium hotel stay when the car broke down so many miles from home. No xJ8 transmission made it past 60k miles, and those cats handled like pigs.
Maybe they should focus on masochists.
They were just as bad before Ford took over. Luckless electrics and all manner of other issues that had been going on for decades. If anything, Ford offered life support.
The more recent models have been fairly reliable. The old V-12 had a horrible ignition problem solved with a $135 kit that went in in about 20 minutes. My friend Bob in Atascadero has one of the little Jag sedans of recent vintage and it has not taken many repairs at all, and those were easy.
Are you dissing on Lucas Electronics, aka the Prince of Darkness?
All lies. But you drank the Kool=Aid, so good for you,
Drank the kool aid?. I’ve owned six of them and raced. I know all about the old Lucas electronics. If my heap wouldn’t start I’d go have a pint and then it would. You downmarket losers know nothing about the thrill of a late sixties, early seventies Jag.
Another “nuh uh!” comment from the resident Democrat trollbot. LI needs a nice civilized ‘block’ feature.
It has occurred to me that most of the buyers of Jaguars [and all sports cars] have been (gasp ) male; as politically incorrect as that may be today.
Thinking back to the 1960’s when Ian Fleming was still writing James Bond books, and Sean Connery was portraying Bond; if I remember correctly Bond drove a sexy Aston-Martin. Now look at the current Jaguar and the flock of . . . confused . . . personages advertising it. If you were a male [XY chromosomes], which brand of vehicle and marketing scheme is most likely to attract your money?
Subotai Bahadur
What do I know. I drive a Honda.
Right. You pick up the Jaguar TO pick up the girl.
Unless you’re the narrator in Steely Dan’s “Things I Miss The Most”… but the best he did was an Audi TT.
This is depressing. I bought a beautiful silver 1994 XJ6 used in 1998 and kept it for 18 years. In the summer, neighboring drivers stopped in traffic used to roll down their windows and ask what model year it was. (No one had to ask what brand it was.)
A fine-looking car.
Luxury automobiles are sold on an idea. If you buy one you are participating in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, living the dream. The dream for the vast majority of humanity is not gay sex or the trannie lifestyle. I would never buy a car associated with that and Jaguar is finding out this hard fact. Apparently Bud Lite was not a hard enough lesson for Corporations to learn. This one might be as there will be no coming back for the brand.
One would think that a minimum, even if a “marketing expert” didn’t know how to market something he’d at least know how to not market it, as was done with Bud Light and Jag.
CopySell Nothing.It is on pace to bring about the 15 minute cities the Euro elites love so much I guess. It’s decision to go all electric and take out those V12 engines sure didn’t help. The market for electric vehicles that appeal to transexuals is pretty niche.
People who eat bugs don’t buy $200K cars.
Perhaps Jaguar got the “Snooki” treatment.
Jaguar was trying the Infiniti approach from 35 years ago, but instead of “calm” they were selling strange. Didn’t work. Trannies don’t go over in the market. Gee.
I’m so old… I remember when tranny meant TorqueFlite, PowerGlide. HydraMatic, UltraMatic, the late and unlamented Jetaway and TurboGlide, Muncie four-speed…
I was never a gearhead, but even I know what a tranny was. LOL
They could throw in a pair of fatty bottom body positive Victorias Secret knickers with every purchase.
That should boost the woke sales demographic.
It’s such a mystery to me. Both the Bud Lite chick and the personal-pronoun-questionable puppy-squeezer have/had bosses. Is the three-martini-lunch a real thing, or is the boardroom full of senile figureheads who don’t even know what the company does? How did these two get the freedom to proceed down the path to ruin?
Jaguar is simply too well defined in the market to change it. It would have been better to put the name to sleep and pursue a “sister-brand” for the EV’s…Leopard perhaps? Then if the EV failed (as ultimately almost all will) they would have had the Jaguar name pure and unsullied.
But…no. They had to go and fućķ it up … forever.
Who was the puppy-squeezer?!? What was that about?
I suppose a reasonably competent con man can gaslight even a hardnosed corporate executive that society is committed to an irrational direction and those who don’t jump on the bandwagon will be left behind.
On the other hand, perhaps those hardnosed executives were gullible fools to begin with:
I’m thinking there’s a lot more blame to go around here than on one Dali ad. This is like Rolex deciding to manufacture mood rings instead.
Luxury automobiles are sold on an idea.
_____________________________________
that’s true but they are also sold on the basis of quality, of being the best or most beautiful that there is–think rolex or breitling for example
the mid-60s series of the XKE, whether ragtop or hardtop, were among the best, most beautiful cars ever made–just legendary vehicles
unlike beer(even crap like budlite) with literally thousands of brands, there is only one jaguar
how they could imagine anything beneficial in attempting to capture the business of a miniscule, mentally ill portion of the population is unknowable
A great man, a man I admire very much, once said that “everything woke turns to shit”. Once again that great man was a hundred per cent correct. Jaguar has let woke take over, and forgotten about design, quality and performance. Forgotten about their high end customer base. They deserve every bad outcome that they get, just like Bud Light.
Seriously, when do the shareholder lawsuits begin? This DEI absurdity is a straight up breach of fiduciary responsibility. Punish them where it hurts.
They stopped trying to sell cars and destroyed their brand name at the same time.
Two thought: This was one of the worst brand identity decisions….ever. It was so bad, they parted ways with that agency before the campaign went live. But, they proceeded anyway. Why? That’s my second thought: They were dying and have been for a couple decades.
The sportscar/luxury car segment is hugely competitive. When you have marks like Bentley (owned by VW), Rolls Royce (owned by BMW), Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and even Ferrari that put out very high quality products (grand tourers and performance SUVs like Jag makes) that offer cutting edge tech AND reliability, it’s tough for a company like Jaguar, that hasn’t been well-capitalized since the 1960s, to compete. This was their Hail Mary…and they failed spectacularly.
*marques
Jaguar is owned by Tata Motors. It can not be ruled out that Tata saw the declining market for Jaguars, announced an all electric luxury brand costing upwards of $200k and that didn’t materialize so they purposefully tanked the brand to put it out of business or sell it outright and cut their losses.
I’m waiting for the first (older model) Jag to sport a vanity license plate: PRE WOKE.
Jaguar is owned by Tata? Which misogynist named that one! [sarcasm off]
They’re from India, where the raunchy words are different.
Don’t wear a fanny pack in England, don’t ask the waiter for a napkin in Australia.
Truly amazed at the insanity of the “elites”! WHY would SANE company try to alienate it’s customer base? I guess they bought into the left’s INSANITY that INSANE is the new SANE!
Also, all these comments and not ONE has referenced the NEW “non official” nickname of “Jag uar” but with an “F”!
The cars popularity came from the fame of an unabashed, heterosexual, male spy known as James Bond. They ruined themselves. Seems the majority of society realizes there is some deep kink in this world and the west agreed it was time to stop policing bedrooms. But the vast majority also wants kink left in the bedroom, not mainstreamed as they’ve tried to do.
Again, the left’s fatal overstepping in taking “everyone should be allowed to” and elevating it to “everyone must.”