Anyone seen the new jaguar ad?

[Hungrycaterpillarsmummy]

Omg what have they done?!

They'll go under in a matter of months I think!

I need to change my car in the next couple of years and was researching jaguars. I think I’ll scratch them off my list as I’m obviously not their target

I mean, look at these ads, especially the first one!! Jaguar had its heyday with its boldness and they're trying to recapture it for today's market.

The Etype was designed by Malcolm Sayer, he was the absolute forefront of automotive design engineering, and back then Jags were distinctly racy and sexy.

They were never meant to be pipe and slippers, but they lost their way with the really-quite-dull FPace and so on.

Unless this is a spoof, they keep telling people on X it is just the start of the story. Maybe the next ad will be more of this - nipple tweaking folk in neon etc - then there is a vinyl record scratch/mic drop moment and it cuts to a forest green convertible Jag, filmed by drone driven on beautiful sunset lit mountain road in Tuscany, by a David Craig lookalike in Ray Bans with an expensive looking brunette by his side and a voice over equivalent of a collective sigh of relief.

BA did this sort of Cool Brand advert - everyone knows their service is still shit.

If they want to rebrand then they have to position themselves in such a way that as many people as possible are instantly hooked into it and see something worth spending many tens of thousands on. Instead, it just looks like an ad for JP Gautier’s latest eau de toilet.

@MillyMichaelson interesting those old ads - but still very 'sex' based aren't they, tongue in cheek - risqué and aimed at men. The latest ad range is almost the opposite of that - sort of asexual and androgynous.

And featuring the sort of office twat people tend to avoid.

I don't agree; they've piqued interest but brand building is an exercise of years. They've started, and by the time they've got a product, there will be hundreds of touch points for potential customers.

They've made the splash, now they have to build on it. That's all.

Of course, but those ads are half a century old! Why would you limit your potential buyer pool to half the car-buying population these days?

I completely understand they want to attract a more varied customer base.

But I think their rebrand and ad are terrible though.

Not all publicity is good publicity in this case...

I do wonder though if it is a massive generational disconnect. I am in my fifties so they are probably not aiming their ads at me - they are trying to aim at a more youthful market. Maybe this resonates with that market.

But where is the money that will buy these cars?

I do think they have to do something radical - because all of the young drivers I know would aspire to Mercedes, Range Rover (in terms of luxury car market). I don't think the young aspire to Jaguar. I suppose most of their business is done through financing.

Of course there are enough people, globally, for buying statement cars.

Having worked in automotive long enough, trust me, there are plenty of rich dads with rich adult kids who are well-versed in making money on their cars: some are bought as investments, some are daily drives, some are in-between.

I still can’t get past a comment made by my dad many years ago about Jags being the car of choice for pervs! Not quite sure what he based this opinion on but it stuck.

But the advert would be more realistic if these brightly dressed people were prancing around at the side of the road waiting for a breakdown truck or being yelled at by someone from Jaguar customer service. Not a brand I’ve ever owned or wanted to but experience from colleagues and friends is they are pretty unreliable and customer service is shockingly poor.

Reminded me a bit of how Apple did it in 1984! Unbelievably 40 years ago and so much better.

Is it a splash?! Seems more of a belly flop with other other pool goers stifling laughs.

No point in taking years to build a niche market when you need the sales figures sooner. I can see they’re trying to make Jags ‘cooler’ and more appealing to a younger demographic but they have a core market they need to acknowledge while they rebrand.

It's unfathomable isn't it @GhostoftheMountain, how it managed to get signed off as acceptable?! I wonder if they did it for a joke too, (as a pp said,) to see what the reaction would be. It's backfiring spectacularly though, and the majority of people loathe this ad! And understandably. It's dreadful.

Sack the people who made this ad NOW, and also the people who allowed it to be shown. The whole lot should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Who says they need to make the sales figures sooner though @SirChenjins ? They've been clear that there will be no product until 2026 so this has obviously been well-planned to absorb that financial gap.

Wait, cars for queers?

lol. That is a v un-exuberant group of people. They look quite sad. Break moulds with - oh a bloke in a dress. How v mainstream.

A few PP are saying "ah, but this is just stage one.. it's all planned" etc and "demographic changed, need to rebrand", but marketing experts and insiders have commented that even judged on those terms, this is woeful.

Apart from anything else, it's clear to the lay person that what Jaguar is visually suggesting is "directional/progressive/new" is actually pretty passé now and just looks like a template for lazy "newness" we've seen for about a decade now. Lower case letters and primary colours a case in point

It's like Chris Morris did it for satire

The whole point is that they don't need to keep their 'existing' target happy. You can't buy a new Jaguar in 2025 - all existing stock is being sold as used. They also recognise that the brand has no future by only trying to cater to its existing target. That simply isn't a sustainable strategy.

This campaign isn't saying "we're for XYZ demographic" (ie those depicted in the creative), it's saying "we're not going to be what you think of when you think of Jag/we're different now/we're totally changing direction/we're doing something completely different". They don't need to talk about the cars yet (including what they're like, what they look like, who they're for) as they won't even be sold until 2026. That will come. And I'd be willing to bet that by the time they do some product advertising that it will look quite different (but it won't be drone shots of cars going up picturesque mountain roads!)

I love that a heritage brand decided to go for a whole new look. I would usually think it brave and I’d be prepared to listen. This however looks like the Benetton team hit mid life crisis and adopted fetish gear.

And the angry bloke wielding a sledgehammer is just creepy frankly.

Yeah I think they've missed the mark and have come late to the aesthetic they've chosen. But it doesn't mean they didn't need to break away from their old brand and pivot to a new demographic.

I do think there's plenty more to come which will dilute the initial aesthetic and it will all settle down into a coherent package. There's time - they're not selling cars until 2026!

But they've properly and deliberately put themselves under the spotlight now, so it quickly needs to come together into something cohesive and more than the sum of its parts.

💯Totally agree!

Maybe the payoff to the teaser is an old school luxe Bond type in a convertible EV jag skidding to a stop in front of the Sad Sacks Bench, grabbing one of the Sacks who gratefully shrugs off the Tellytubby suit, shakes out perfect hair and jumps into the passenger seat as they head off to the winding roads above Monte Carlo.

In recognition that this is 2024 not 1964, the Bond type is a beautiful strong woman and the glamorous sidekick is a skinny pouty non-binary who looks fabulous in a frock.

But that's so done! The 'biker pulls off their helmet and it's a woman who shakes her long hair out, thus relegating her to a sex object as always' thing.