Posted on 05/09/2025 9:50:29 PM PDT by Red Badger
Five months after Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) effectively “Bud Light’d” itself with a woke social media campaign, the British automaker is reportedly severing ties with its ad agency, according to British media.
But why now—half a year later? The backlash over its controversial woke rebranding occurred last fall, yet the company’s pronoun-wielding executive publicly defended the cringe ad at the time.
The Telegraph first reported that JLR was severing ties with its ad agency, Accenture Song, after the marketing disaster on November 19.
Elon Musk asked JLR: “Do you sell cars?”
In 2021, Accenture Song joined forces with Spark44, JLR’s client-agency joint venture, to create a new marketing approach for JLR’s shift to an electric-first, modern luxury business.
But JLR’s marketing blunder was merely a repeat of Bud Light’s trans activism and a lesson for corporations not to stack their teams with woke activists.
Much like Bud Light’s disastrous foray into identity politics, JLR fell into the same woke trap. Now, the brand is paying the price as a multi-year sales decline deepens.
Days after the ad was launched and backlash erupted, Jaguar boss Rawdon Glover said the ad’s “intended message” had been lost in “a blaze of intolerance” on social media platforms and rejected the notion that the video was woke.
“If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out. So we shouldn’t turn up like an auto brand,” Glover stated. On LinkedIn, the executive still promotes his pronouns…
Unlike JLR, Volvo’s ad team read the room. Sensing the Overton Window had shifted away from far-left wokeism toward themes of family, tradition, and stability—they released this…
Volvo posted a 3 min and 46 second ad on Instagram, shot by Hoyte Van Hoytema, the cinematographer of Interstellar and Oppenheimer.
It goes against every single rule you can think about as a social lead. Length. Format. Over-produced.
Every comment under the ad said it… pic.twitter.com/wkmghuP4ye— Guillaume Huin (@HuinGuillaume) November 21, 2024
Revisiting the earlier question: Why did JLR wait six months to start searching for a new ad agency?
Was it due to slumping sales, or perhaps pressure related to tariffs? We may never get the full story—but what’s clear is this: woke marketing is dead. Companies view the purple-haired college graduate as an increasing liability rather than an asset.
Why does Aston Martin get it?
A friend has a 12 year old Jaguar that is dark purple. Very sharp ride for a lawyer to arrive in.
I had a friend of a friend in engineering school who was working his way through as a Jag mechanic. He ultimately dropped out because he would have had to take too much of a pay cut as an entry level engineer.
They were "cool", yes. Cool looking. They were also junk. I had a Triumph Spitfire. Like the rest, Triumph was made by British Leyland. They made junk. Totally unreliable. Electrics by Lucas.
You know why the brits drinks warm beer? Their refrigerators are made by Lucas.
Fire the ad agency and the exec who green lighted that nonsense.
.......after the incomprehensible, abysmally bad ad launched, Jaguar’s Rawdon Glover said........
<><>the ad’s “intended message” had been lost in “a blaze of intolerance”
<><>backlash erupted on social media platforms,
<><>Glover rejected the notion that the ad was “woke.”
The ads were ridiculous, but fit the product offered...... an auto designed
for a market demographic: people who hate autos and will never buy one.
lol.......
“They were “cool”, yes. Cool looking. They were also junk. I had a Triumph Spitfire. Like the rest, Triumph was made by British Leyland. They made junk “
I made the mistake of trading in my 1976 Toyota Celica GT liftback for a new 1977 Triumph TR7 . What a lemon ! An even bigger lemon than my 1973 Z28 Camaro !
I had an older Spitfire myself years ago. Biggest piece of s##t I ever owned. Impossible to keep the multiple carbs in sync. It was a 6 volt system with the infamous Lucas electr ics. A winning combination to be sure. You can guess the rest. Got rid of it quickly. Fun to drive though when I could get it started.
That’s right.
Blame the ad agency.
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
What we learned from the Bud Lite situation was that it was not just one executive that was rotten—it was the entire Board of Directors and executive team.
When a company tells you they are your enemy—don’t blame the ad agency—believe them.
In the 1976 movie “The Gumball Rally” Team Jaguar never made it to the starting line because their car wouldn’t start.
I actually owned three Triumph Spitfires in the ‘60s, one after the other as they fell apart beyond repair. A 12v positive ground system, Lucas electrics, steel not strong enough for American highways, a weak independent rear suspension which had a tendency to tuck under in a sharp turn, and a spring-loaded gas filler cap directly behind you neck, were only some of the joys of ownership. Another was its unbelievable agility on twisty country roads.
I owned a mid-70s Spitfire during mid-80s. It did have issues, but still was fun to drive around LA, especially to the beaches.
Next up for Jaguar: a bunch of gyrating yiffing furries. Surely that market segment will fall all over themselves to purchase one of these monstrosities.
Better hide the keys from Ferris.
“Electrics by Lucas”
Old saying: Lucas, Prince of darkness.
I was going to mention that running gag. The story is that Jaguar wouldn't give them a car to use for filming, so they got back at them. Here is a quote from the trivia page on IMDB for the movie: The producers approached Jaguar and asked them to provide a car for the film. The company refused, so the producers obtained the Jaguar seen in the early scenes of the film from elsewhere. Then, in what was an apparent act of 'F-U' retaliation, they filmed the in-the-garage scene of the rally send-off ... with the Jaguar being unable to participate because it refused to start. The car is a 1974 XK-E V12 Series III. The unreliability of this car is well known. This car made Time magazine's 2019 list of "The 50 Worst Cars of All Time".
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