The boss of embattled carmaker Jaguar has again defended a dramatic rebrand that caused online backlash as it launched its new car in Miami.
The 89-year-old British car brand unveiled a sleek new electric model on Monday, ending weeks of unprecedented anticipation for a Jaguar launch, if arguably for the wrong reasons.
The Type 00, launched in neon colors that Jaguar dubs “Miami Pink” and “London Blue,” marks the most aggressive rebrand in Jaguar’s history. The cars, which will start at a price tag of just under £100,000, are made to appeal to a new, younger audience.
However, the bold new design is unlikely to assuage conservative critics who have piled on the carmaker in the past two weeks.
Jaguar’s controversial rebrand
Jaguar announced a rebranding in November, two weeks before it was due to debut its newest models at Miami Art Week. The criticism encapsulated an ongoing culture war that has played out on social media between the right and left of the political spectrum.
In its advert, Jaguar used models from a diverse, young background in a clear sign of its pivot away from its older customer base. However, there was no car to go along with the bold advertising campaign.
The rebrand received scorching criticism online, which often spilled into homophobia and transphobia. X owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a critic of what he calls the “woke mind virus,” wrote on his platform to his 206 million followers: “Do you sell cars?”
Jaguar’s rebrand has been compared to Bud Light’s social media campaign with Dylan Mulvaney, which caused a boycott of the beer and wiped nearly $30 billion off owner AB InBev’s market value. That backlash, too, was steeped in homophobic and transphobic rhetoric, with Mulvaney later saying she didn’t feel supported by AB InBev amid online vitriol.
For Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover, however, there is apparently no such thing as bad publicity.
“We want to be bold and disruptive … We’re clearly in the conversation,” Glover told Sky News.
“More people have been talking about Jaguar for the last two weeks than—goodness, for so much longer. Car companies unveil new cars all the time and go completely unnoticed.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform U.K. party, said: “I predict Jaguar will now go bust. And you know what? They deserve to.”
Glover’s response to Farage in the Times affirms an expectation among execs that only 15% of its Jaguar customers will come along with it on the rebrand, and Farage isn’t among them.
“The average age of the Jaguar client is quite old and getting older. We’ve got to access a completely different audience. That audience isn’t centered around people of the demographic of Mr. Farage,” Glover told the Times.
Speaking to Sky News following the launch of the car, however, Glover appeared to walk back these statements.
“We want to take as many of our current fans with us on that journey … We need to also appeal to a new audience. That’s what we need to do.”
