Here’s some more insight into the Jaguar ad that was released last week and caused “outrage.” While the lack of cars in a car ad is an understandable critique, all the other discourse around it inches closer and closer to bigotry. Should marketing teams be more mindful of online blowback like this when developing “unconventional” advertising and marketing?
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/creatives-weigh-in-on-jaguars-rebrand/
I’m torn. The blowback feels like the artistic point here. Ignoring the clearly bigoted takes, this ad campaign is getting people who stopped paying attention to Jaguar to pay attention. If this ad was more expected, would anyone care? I’m not a car enthusiast so not sure where the brand ranks in terms of speed or performance BUT with general consumers feels like it needed a campaign that would shake up the brand and get people who saw it as a dated brand to reconsider that notion. I’m sure more of the campaign has still yet to launch so whenever they do show off their new suite of vehicles, I think that’s when it’s best to revisit and think of this holistically. This right now feels bold in the right ways and I can’t see how the teams behind it didn’t anticipate the “blowback.” Let’s see what they do with our attention now that they’ve grabbed it.
Pro
I guess when they say “all publicity is good publicity,” this is what they meant. People are certainly talking but I’m not sure if it’s in the way that everyone wanted. It doesn’t have me thinking about Jaguar as a car manufacturer at all.
Did anyone BIPOC work on this ad in any kind of meaningful way? It wouldn’t surprise me if the answer is “no.” Then that would mean the diverse community takes the blunt of these “woke” attacks, but may have had nothing to do with it in any real way in the first place.
Pro
That’s a GREAT question. I would not be surprised if the answer was absolutely zero people of color worked on this ad.