Jaguar Rebranded: The Woke War against Normal
Marketing campaigns are, it is generally recognized, an attempt to sell a particular product or service. This can be done in any number of ways, from presenting a product as enticing to showcasing the necessity of a product to using humor or star power to generate appeal. In almost all cases, however, it is advisable to feature the product itself in one’s marketing campaigns. World-renowned automobile manufacturer Jaguar has, as of late, opted to disregard this latter standard — or, indeed, any of the aforementioned standards — and debuted a new marketing campaign comprised solely of the bizarre.
In addition to unveiling a new logo — which noticeably does not feature the company’s iconic, eponymous, pouncing big cat — Jaguar launched a new ad this week. The ad featured a host of androgynous individuals clad in brightly-colored outfits of a design so strange that the denizens of the Capitol in “The Hunger Games” appear commonplace and well-adjusted.
The ad features an Asian man wearing a yellow tank top and matching vinyl tutu, a black man (I am presuming that it is a man, anyway) sporting an afro that seems to be missing an entire quarter of itself and wearing a skintight red bodysuit with furry boots that look as though they could have been designed by Dr. Seuss in delirium, a black woman with a shaved head wearing a dress that resembles badly-arranged tissue paper sticking out of the top of a gift bag, a man who looks alarmingly similar to actress Tilda Swinton and is clothed in a garish orange dress seemingly made of rubber, and a whole cast of other bizarre figures of unsettling appearance and uncertain gender. The ad also features large pink rocks, upside-down rooms, and the brightest yellow elevator doors one could envision. What the ad does not feature is a Jaguar.
It wasn’t always this way, of course. Jaguar was once reputed for making the coolest cars ever, and everyone knew it. James Bond drove a Jaguar (2002’s “Die Another Day” and 2015’s “Spectre” are prime examples); a Jaguar made a memorable appearance in the “Fast and Furious” franchise; and pop stars from Jay Z to Lana Del Rey have featured the car in their glamorous music videos.
In 2015, less than 10 years ago, Jaguar launched an ad campaign headlined by English movie stars Ben Kinglsey, Mark Strong, and Tom Hiddleston, all three of whom are known for playing villains. As Strong and Hiddleston race to a luxurious mansion, Strong behind the wheel of a Jaguar and Hiddleston being outpaced in a helicopter, the trio of actors discuss the English heritage of the Jaguar and why Brits make such excellent movie villains. As Strong and Hiddleston arrive at the mansion, Kingsley, having freshly donned a sleek bow tie and dinner jacket, intones, “Oh, yes. It’s good to be bad.”
That ad campaign understood who the buyer is and what he’s looking for. Nobody buys a Jaguar because it’s affordable or convenient or fuel efficient. People buy Jaguars because they’re cool, sleek, seductive, and powerful. Movie villains, especially the sort portrayed by the likes of Kingsley, Strong, and Hiddleston, exude the very elegance, power, and affluence that Jaguar was once synonymous with. Besides, watching three big-name actors race helicopters and luxury cars to a veritable palace laden with high-tech security measures is simply cool.
In another series of ads, Hiddleston compared the revving of a Jaguar’s engine to the authority of an English movie villain’s voice and the car’s advanced technology to the sort of gadgetry that one would expect from a Bond film. In an age where patriotism and national pride are practically verboten, especially in Europe, it seems almost shocking to think that Jaguar’s ads even included a monologue from William Shakespeare’s “Richard II,” praising the English nation and the men who made her.
The simple fact is that Jaguar used to be cool. Whatever the company’s new logo and ad campaign may be — bizarre, indecipherable, amorphous, woke — they are not cool. Woke is the opposite of cool. Cool sells, woke doesn’t. Countless corporate titans have evidently learned their lessons when it comes to handling the poison known as woke. Bud Light, Tractor Supply, John Deere, Lowe’s, Rip Curl, and numerous other brands and retailers have discovered that vociferously promoting LGBT ideology is a death sentence for corporate profits. Jaguar may simply be late to the game, but the car manufacturer will also learn this lesson.
James Bond speeding along the cliffs of the Amalfi coast with a truckload of armed and uniformed villains in hot pursuit is cool. Bruce Wayne leaving his Gotham City penthouse and racing through the streets to reach the Batcave is cool. Jason Bourne evading CIA goons and tearing through downtown New York City is cool. Dirty Harry chasing a crazed criminal down the California freeway is cool. A man in a dress is not cool. A morbidly obese woman is not cool. Woke is not cool. Jaguar has chosen to abandon its heritage and the image of “cool” with which the company has become almost synonymous in favor of woke.
At its core, woke is the infantile, futile attempt to subvert and alter reality without any real effort. A man declaring himself a woman can never change the incontrovertible fact of his biological makeup by donning a pair of high heels and lecturing others about his new pronouns. This is also why woke is so obnoxious, so blatant, and so “in your face.” Reality needs no filter to be understood as reality; a six-foot-tall man with a big beard and a burly chest does not need to clarify that he is a man, it is simply understood.
But a six-foot-tall man in a ballgown has to tell others that he identifies as a woman and demands to be called “she” and “her,” because his subversion or alteration of reality is so clearly contradictory to reality; he cannot just be a six-foot-tall man in a dress, which is what reality denotes to the casual observer. Woke needs filters, it must filter reality through its own series of lenses in order to present its own distorted replication of reality; it can never simply rely on reality.
Cool, on the other hand, is rooted in reality. Unlike woke, it needs no filters. One need not be lectured about the emotional science of sound to get a slight thrill when a powerful engine roars to life beneath the hood. One need not have gone through excitement management training courses in order to cheer when an athlete pulls off a seemingly impossible feat. Cool is unafraid of itself, it presents itself simply, as part of the fabric of reality. Another thing: cool sells.
Whether it’s Jaguar or some other corporation, any conglomerate that goes woke is not doing so in order to market a product. This is a common (although well-meaning) misconception among many on the Right; we assume, based on our own mindset and goodwill, that these corporations and companies mistakenly believe that they will appeal to an evolving population of consumers and increase profits. This is not correct. These companies are, with few — if any — exceptions, not hurting for money, and most have the experience and history to know how to maintain and increase profits.
They are not promoting a product, they are promoting an ideology. Retail department stores do not sell rainbow Pride flag onesies because market research shows a sudden demand for LGBT-themed apparel among two-year-olds: they do so in the hope that the moms and dads who actually shop for their two-year-olds will believe that introducing toddlers to LGBT ideology is normal — or at least popular. Children’s entertainment companies do not introduce new characters with “they/them” pronouns and same-sex partners because they believe that five- and six-year-old viewers are craving LGBT representation: they do so in an effort to introduce children to ideas that would have otherwise never occurred to them, and to invite the children to question the ideas with which they have been raised.
In the end, woke is not a marketing technique or ploy, it is an act of ideological warfare. Jaguar is not on a sudden quest to sell its cars exclusively to they/thems and androgynous ethnic minorities. No, the automobile manufacturer is trying to replace its carefully-curated cool image with woke, and is hoping that everyone will mistake the former for the latter. If Jaguar is cool and Jaguar is woke, then woke must be cool, right?
But the filters have been falling over the past few years, like scales from one’s eyes. Jaguar may find that it has arrived to the woke party a little too late. While it’s true that none of these major corporations is quite hurting for money, everybody who’s sick to their stomachs of the incessant whining, labeling, and filtering necessitated by woke may just decide to make these corporations hurt for money.
AUTHOR
S.A. McCarthy
S.A. McCarthy serves as a news writer at The Washington Stand.
EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2024 Family Research Council.
The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.
