InspiRAYtion 25: A Jaguar’s last Song
Change is a good thing. But brands live in the hearts of your consumers. Break them and they will break you right back, stated adman Rayomand J Patell.
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By Rayomand J Patell
If you’re on LinkedIn, you would have seen endless marketing bros opine upon the Jaguar rebrand. Some weren’t sure if it was a rebrand, or a tabula rasa. Most, were scathing in their criticism. The ‘Meta’ Opinion sorts pointed out that if it had people chatting about Jag for the first time in forever, that alone proved the work was a spot of genius.
If you’re on Car Guy Instagram, the absolute collective hissing against this couldn’t have stood in more stark contrast. While LinkedIn Marketing Bros were more measured in their critiques, the Car World had a collective paroxysm. From boys of eight to grown stalwarts of eighty, the new Jag campaign was very clearly something to be *Jeremy Clarkson’s voice* “burned with fire”.
In both worlds, there were the holdouts - those who held off on their opinion till an actual car would be forthcoming. This too came to pass, and the result was another vitriolic bunch of people moaning about how something so august as Jaguar could have made this misstep. It seemed there was absolutely nothing to save the situation.
A few days ago, news filtered in that Jaguar had resorted to the oldest trick in the book; throwing their agency under the bus. And I felt that having ignored this entire issue thus far (well except for sharing a few juicy memes on the subject), it was time to share a point of view.
No agency, not even Song, can hold a client hostage to putting out a campaign. The client commissioned the work, they possibly directed the agency towards this direction and even if they didn’t, they signed off on it. Now to call for a new agency, reeks of expediency. To me, this was even more toxic than a) the rebrand itself and b) the utterly horrendous car put out.
I live in a bubble, and like to imagine people doing the right thing but it happens so rarely… but it would have in my humble opinion been a time for the brand to own up to a misstep and stand by their agency. Along with them they could have publicly craved for forgiveness, and gotten back to the legacy Jaguar brand and cars that we know and love.
Change is a good thing. But brands live in the hearts of your consumers. Break them and they will break you right back. On that note, see you next Thursday!
Rayomand J Patell is an advertising veteran and InspiRAYtion is a weekly column on everything about advertising and marketing.
