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Jaguar and the "Wokerati"

The Jaguar Type OO concept.

Here it is then.

There was always going to be a car. The teaser campaign was just that, a teaser.

Somehow, the relaunch of a traditional, and, for most of its history, unsuccessful car company got wrapped up in the culture wars. The new brand's typeface, with its mix of upper and lower case may not be to everyone's taste, resulting in notable commentators decrying it as "woke". Those "woke" slogans? "Copy Nothing" was inspired by Jaguar's founder, Sir William Lyons; a man not known for his progressive politics.

Musk tweeting "do you sell cars?", Farage predicting "'Jaguar will now go bust. And you know what? They deserve to". How to square the patriotism of Farage with his will for a company which manufactures and designs cars in the UK to go bust?

Those who complain the teaser destroyed Jaguar's heritage seem unaware that ripping up and starting again is an intrinsic part of the company's DNA; a company who replaced the deified E-Type with the originally much maligned XJS, (which stayed in production for over 20 years) are no stranger to controversy.

Jaguar's history as an unsuccessful car company has been punctuated by stand out moments, the E-Type being the most notable. They're a company who have never sold as many cars as they needed to, and lived a hand to mouth existence; starved of development money by successive parent companies who couldn't visualise a return on investment; chasing volume with the Ford based X-Type, which sold c350k units; less than half of the company's aspirations, and living in the shadow of successful sibling Land Rover, yet blighted by the unreliability reputation by association. 

Jaguar's history is one of missed opportunities. The high tech X350 of the 2000's, with its all aluminum body; class leading chassis, ride, and comfort?
A sales failure, partly due to its "National Trust" styling. 

Its successor, the X351, attempted to address the fusty styling issue, and maintained the best in class dynamics, ride, and aluminium construction
Another sales disaster.

Jaguar have been left with 3 options.
1) Continue doing what they're doing.
2) Shut up shop.
3) What they're doing now; a full, bold reimagining of their brand.

I know what I'd prefer.

Apart from anything else, in a world where every voice is clamouring for attention, Jaguar's is being heard: some 300 million viewers saw the 30 second teaser campaign, some commenting that it didn't even show a car being driven. True. In the same way that the ad with the drum-playing gorilla didn't show any chocolate being eaten.

https://www.jaguar.co.uk/copy-nothing/index.html

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