Jaguar’s ‘Woke’ Rebrand Architect ‘Escorted from Office’ After Sales Plunge 98%
“In case you have managed to forget this Gender Apocalypse Meth Nightmare, here’s your reminder.”
Everyone — except, it seems, the top executives at the iconic British sports car and luxury vehicle maker Jaguar Land Rover — saw this coming. According to The Telegraph, Gerry McGovern, the chief creative officer behind Jaguar’s controversial “woke” rebrand, was reportedly “escorted from his office” on Monday after more than two decades with the company.
McGovern’s inglorious dismissal came just days after PB Balaji, the former chief financial officer of Tata Motors, which owns JLR, took over as chief executive officer.
The company’s previous CEO, Adrian Mardell, who oversaw the rebrand, announced his retirement in August after JLR reported a 97.5% plunge in sales.
You may recall the surreal ad that launched the disastrous rebrand in November 2024 — the one everyone mocked but no one forgot.
The 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 were intermittently displayed on the screen that read: create exuberant, live vivid, delete ordinary, break moulds, copy nothing, and finally the new brand appeared. “Jaguar” was written using a combination of lower- and uppercase letters.
Strangely missing from the ad — were cars. This prompted Elon Musk to ask, “Where are the cars?”
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.”
Before refreshing his reader’s memories of this unfortunate ad, blogger Ace of Spades amusingly wrote: “Think different you guys. … Challenge everything you guys. … Cut your genitals off you guys. … In case you have managed to forget this Gender Apocalypse Meth Nightmare, here’s your reminder.”
Ace accurately described McGovern as “the Chief Creative Officer who oversaw the effort to turn Jaguar into a trans brand.”
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1996198844523307470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The Telegraph reported:
[McGovern] was also the main creative force behind last year’s radical rebrand of Jaguar that aimed to shift the marque away from its traditional “Jag Man” image towards ultra-wealthy customers.
A “Type 00” concept for the carmaker’s first electric model – unveiled at an international art show last December – was sleek, futuristic-looking and coloured in shades of bright pink and blue.
It invited unflattering comparisons to the FAB 1 car driven by Lady Penelope in Thunderbirds and Barbie’s screaming pink convertible.
An advert for the rebrand, featuring a cast of androgynous-looking models but no cars, was also criticised for being too “woke”, with Nigel Farage and Donald Trump among those who attacked the campaign.
Suffice it to say, the rebrand was not simply a flop, but one of the most spectacular misfires in modern marketing history.
The backlash was immediate — and fierce.
One X user told the company to fire its marketing team.
Another suggested JLR “must have hired the marketing director who got fired from Bud Light!”
The following user slammed Jaguar’s new logo:
I’ve never seen anything so ridiculous as Jaguar’s new logo which is replacing the iconic growling cat – pic.twitter.com/jafqP5jkGz
— TheGolfDivoTee™ (@TheGolfDivoTee) November 20, 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 who produced the ad, Santino Pietrosanti, was a “BLM-supporting executive from New York who lives with [his] Scottish husband and their cockapoo Mia.”
https://twitter.com/amuse/status/1996198844523307470?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But, rather than course correct, Rawdon Glover, the managing director of the Jaguar brand, brushed off the criticism as “vile hatred and intolerance.” He told the Financial Times, “We need to re-establish our brand and at a completely different price point so we need to act differently.”
The Telegraph noted that he has “repeatedly” supported the rebrand, telling ABC News earlier this year:
We’re not looking for everybody to say, ‘That’s nice.’
I think great design does polarize, whether that’s in fashion or architecture or whatever else.
So having the confidence to say this is what we think the 21st century Jaguar should look like and then sticking to that is very important.
Perhaps a few car designs were merely polarizing — the Pontiac Aztek, the Chrysler PT Cruiser convertible, and even the DeLorean come to mind.
But the new Jaguar models could hardly be defended as “great design.” The drastic departure from the sleek, elegant lines that once defined the brand made the new models nearly unrecognizable. In abandoning the very styling that built its mystique, Jaguar seemed to lose not just its identity, but its appeal.
The rebrand didn’t just confuse consumers — it alienated them.
This marketing blunder — extraordinary in both its predictability and its repercussions — is poised to take its place among the era’s most instructive corporate missteps, a case study future business students will analyze for years.
BREAKING – Gerry McGovern, the architect of Jaguar’s 2024 woke ad and rebrand that caused a 97.5% sales collapse, has been fired and escorted from the building while the company scrambles to erase all traces of the disastrous campaign. pic.twitter.com/VVi4P74gYl
— Right Angle News Network (@Rightanglenews) December 3, 2025
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.
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
What is an unspotted Jaguar? A fraud.
Ha Ha!
Escort out of the office is general if you’re going to a competitor. If you just resign to go to school, you can just leave your badge with the guard on the way out.
I don’t think he was going to a competitor.
Jag only hopes he is.
No, that’s not true. It’s become standard policy to be terminated and while gathering your things and leaving to be escorted by security and a higher up. Happens all of the time.
When I worked for the Navy, we had one employee who was fired, and they scraped the access decal off his car. While he would have needed a badge to get on the base worked at, the decal was enough to get on other bases.
Jaguar was an iconic brand whose cars appealed to men. Whose SUV’s appealed to women. If you’re appealing to trans people you’re not appealing to anyone who can afford your product. I’ll stick with Porsche.
” I’ll stick with Porsche.”
******
Porsche has its own Woke woes. Decided to do major transition to EV; a combination of management stupidity and EU regulations. Now trying to back track from those decisions. Lost at least $4 billion and counting. EU “Green Agenda” is killing Porsche…recently drove a Porsche SUV with a 2.0 liter, 4 cylinder engine….pathetic for a “performance” brand.
Porsche reversed the EV shift after President Trump ended the subsidy via the BBB passed earlier this year. The small 4 cylinder was in response to the Biden era CAFE standards that President Trump just reversed.
Darwin will not be denied, even in marketing.
Subotai Bahadur
Diversity is our vaporlock.
And Jaguars case it’s our oil leak.
1973 MGB….if the forecast called for rain it would not start!
“And Jaguars case it’s our oil leak.”
****
A specialty of the British. My BIL who liked Jags and had several; told me if you get one, keep a metal pan under the crank case and have another car for transportation. I had a 1997 XJR (supercharged) that was very reliable after it had all of its valves redone at 3k miles.
Way back when I was in college I bought a Suzuki motorcycle. It was sold by a dealership in downtown San Diego that handled Suzuki and among other brands, they handled BSA. On the showroom floor all of the Suzuki motorcycles were displayed with nothing underneath them. All of the BSA‘s had a pan underneath them.
The salesman explained to me that every BSA came standard equipment with a self lubricating garage floor.
My neighbor has a Jag sports car (pre- ad). It’s a little like knowing someone with an Edsel.
Kind of reminds me of Teslas after Musk joined Trump for Doge. People were putting anti-Musk bumper stickers on them. Need some clever sticker now for your neighbors Jag.
There’s a lot of ‘brushing off criticism as vile hatred and intolerance’ going around. It’s what happens when folks who’ve been accustomed to unquestioned deference finally are faced with direct inquiries; they tend to sputter off about ‘ists, isms and phobes’ to deflect. Used to work pretty well but not so effective anymore and b/c that deference was often tied to group ID not individual merit it really chaps their behind when that group ID card is declined as they have little else to offer.
This was the crest of the woke, trans corporate nonsense. Guess what? You still have to make a product and sell it to people or you will go broke and don’t forget the base customers that got you there. I though Bud Lite was a disaster, at least they had other beer to weather the storm. Jag has one product so screw it up at their peril and they did. That whole woke phenomenon will go down as the biggest stupid marketing ploy’s in history.
I could turn that company around in a heartbeat. Exactly, and I mean exactly, copy late 60s and early 70s Jags with modern electronics and mechanicals. Then use classically handsome and beautiful Caucasian actors dressed formally speeding along twisty country roads to stirring classical music. It would be a sensation with any criticism by the lunatic left only adding to the appeal.
I’m sorry, showing whites in favorable positions and roles is not allowed. We can’t have that sort of racist behavior. It offends those that will never, ever buy a Jag in any circumstances.
Need the guy to jauntily wear a Beret and have Sydney Sweeny at his side.
Put Sydney Sweeney in the PASSENGER seat (NOT the driver’s seat).
Better yet, put her in the already occupied driver’s seat.
Exactly. She would fit nicely between me and the steering wheel.
Damn!!!!
I don’t think that you have to restrict it to just Caucasian actors and actresses. In Japan for example you could have well dressed obviously upper crust Japanese businessmen cruising around Mt Fuji or downtown Tokyo to get the same point across. Your point of returning to exclusivity is a valid one, though.
Welcome to the Machine
Somebody should have handed the guy a Bud Lite on the way out the door.
And a coupon for Cracker Barrel
Exactly, after the aforementioned, you’d think they’d learn
Cockapoo Mia Hardest Hit
I hadn’t even seen the commercial yet when I read the story of the NYC gay guy moving to Ireland with his husband that was taking over and saw a picture of him with his shirt half undone and hold the dog. I knew they were in serious trouble right at that point. I didn’t think it was going to be that bad, though. Stop making ice cars to switch completely to ev’s without having ev’s in the showrooms and then hire that guy to be the marketing genius. The entire executive suite at Jag needs to be shown the door and I’m surprised Tata didn’t make that happen.
Liberals always think they are leading when no one is in front of them. The failure is that they never look behind to see that no one is following either.
Or that they are actually so far behind that second-to-last is out of view.
No, no, no.
Using Barky’s job reporting style, we say that he “saved 2.5% of sales”.
Jag-U-Ar became DRAG-U-Ar, and they wonder why their sales collapsed…
Jaguar ceased making cars in 2024 and pulled all of its products off the market. So sales are down because it has nothing to sell.
Its trying to transition to all EV, which seems incredibly short sighted now that the EV market is probably dead with the subsidies gone.
The ad was only one of many major ill-timed mistakes.
It’s a classic buggy whip story.
Cadillac tried to piush repulsive tr@nny commercials years ago. They were awful and pathetic. It seems that no one remembers them, though. They played them for about a year and then just stopped the whole campaign. It was that pathetic ad campaign with Steve Wozniak in it – the Woz and a bunch of tr@nnys for the campaign. It was something stupid about “Be Yourself” or something like that.
I always considered Caddy to be the gay car after that.
When the executive suite becomes divorced not only from reality but from their customer base bad things happen. Bud Lite and Cracker Barrel are two of the most recent example. Moving to EV’s which have a small market base, basically Europe, which would guarantee that Jag was a niche player, not having any product in stock when you pull all the rest off the market, not reading the EV craze and disappearing subsidies going away and finally starting a marketing campaign that would alienate even the more restricted market you are going for. One disaster after the other and no one at Jaguar HQ said stop? No one did any market research? If they did, was it done only in a uber progressive, tranny favorable population? Everyone at Jaguar HQ that had anything to do with this entire chain of events needs to be fired. I can’t believe Tata gave the go ahead for this.
We were forced into a sequel of The Hunger Games for the past decade or so.
Thankfully, it appears to be ending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb6H7trzMfI
This is scary for our auto industry. EV available, made by xiaomi the phone company.