“A fire of intolerance”: Jaguar’s response to Elon Musk
Car manufacturer Jaguar is changing its brand identity with a strategy focused on luxury and electric cars. The new adevertising campaign has caused Elon Musk to react, to which the Jaguar boss responded.
A car Ad without a car, that's Jaguar's bet to present its new identity and its new logo. It's colorful, with modernized typography. However, the leaping feline removed from the logo will remain present on certain elements. Apparently, Elon Musk doesn't like that. He called this new communication "woke-like" and "throwing its heritage away". Criticism is of course allowed. But it seemed more like contempt, or even gratuitous insult. Jaguar's response was fierce.
Bad buzz
Elon Musk's reaction has heated up his fan club and some loyalists of the brand. It has also set social media networks ablaze, X in particular. The conservative "beautiful world" was quick to follow suit with its flood of criticism, often uncalled for. Rawdon Glover, Jaguar CEO, regretted a level of "despicable hatred and intolerance". He categorically rejects the 'woke' description, which doesn't correspond to the image or the "representation of what we think our future customers are".
Differentiate yourself
He explained his new strategy in the Financial Times: "We have to rebuild our brand." Given that the new Jaguars will have a completely different price level, with 100% electric models, "we must therefore act differently" by "moving away from traditional automotive stereotypes". He also specifies that "if we play the same way as everyone else, we will just drown" in the crowd. Especially since the brand will be put "on hold" until 2026, effectively stopping the sale of new models for 1 year.
Boomerang effect
Let's note that Tesla boss' comments has allowed Jaguar to attain a record number of views: the video presenting the manufacturer's new image has already been viewed more than 160 million times, on X alone... As Jaguar wanted to target a younger clientele, present on social media networks, this bad buzz will have at least allowed incessant flow of online video viewings. Whose the catch now?
(MH with Olivier Duquesne - Source: Le Figaro - Picture: © Jaguar)