What actually went wrong at Jaguar

Nearly a year ago, Jaguar unveiled a refreshed brand identity that was supposed to usher in its future. So far, it’s been mostly a headache.

The 102-year-old luxury automaker, once a head-to-head competitor with brands like Mercedes-Benz and BMW, had been plagued with problems even before the advertising campaign was released, including leadership changes, declining sales amid a stale lineup and stiff competition from the likes of both German luxury carmakers as well as relative upstarts like Tesla.

Now it can add two more problems: misleading headlines about its sales, and outrage from the political right — most notably the US president.

On Monday, President Donald Trump trashed Jaguar for what he called a “stupid” and “seriously WOKE” ad campaign last year, which featured an avant-garde commercial that featured slogans such as “live vivid,” and what appeared to be gender-fluid models, but zero images of its cars or even concepts of a car.

“Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad,” quipped Trump on Truth Social. “The market cap destruction has been unprecedented with BILLIONS OF DOLLARS SO FOOLISHLY LOST.”