The brand is British born but has always carried a kind of a sexy glamor internationally.

The famous Jaguar SS 100 made it’s debut in the late 30s.

https://tinyurl.com/bdhpdw9m
And several models have subsequently served as transportation for British royalty over the years. Queen Elisabeth II “…was also particularly taken with a humble Jaguar X-Type family five-door– clocking up a healthy 70,000 miles, more often than not taking the wheel herself.” https://tinyurl.com/mv7teap7

Here, in the U.S., Steve McQueen drove a Jag XKSS

While Frank Sinatra drove a model XJS

And like one of the one of the funniest comics of all time, Peter Sellers, who bought an E Type Jag for his then wife, Britt Ekland, I too bought a Jag (coupe) for my wife in the 90s.

But that’s a story for another issue. The reason I have shared a bit of background about this classic auto brand is to comment on the commercial Jaguar put out a few months ago.
I intended to write an article covering both the Cracker Barrel logo fiasco and the Jaguar commercial as well. But I just got the first part done and sent it out.
I had a lot of feedback on that article. Not all of which was simpatico with my point of view. Which, of course, is what makes the world go round.
I will be charitable; the Cracker Barrel logo change was an error in judgement. A mistake, a bad mistake, a $100 million dollar mistake. Still, they scrambled and fixed the logo and cancelled the remodel and we’ll see what happens to the stock.

But the Jaguar commercial wasn’t a mistake, it was…(take a deep breath) an intention to crash the brand. I know, harsh comment.
But then, I am presuming you saw this commercial. In case you missed it or want to see it again, here it is: https://tinyurl.com/2wxurj78
The picture below is a still from the commercial, which is essentially these people in various poses. No words are spoken. No cars are shown. Just some of these people silently placed in different positions. At the very end of the 30 second commercial are the words Copy Nothing and then the word Jaguar.
I repeat, no dialogue, no cars. Just humanoids of varying skin colors dressed in loudly colored outfits.

The blowback on showing the commercial was helacious. Still, the General Manager of Jaguar sought to justify it, noting that the “COPY NOTHING” line is to ensure the public knows that Jaguar is original.

I monitor marketing mercilessly. I love good commercials. Modesty aside, I have made a few based on positioning we have conducted. But I have a problem when the landscape is littered with commercials that damage brands. It doesn’t matter that the advertiser is not my client, schluby ads make me mad. It’s like there’s a beautifully maintained landscape and someone comes along and throws trash on it.

And recently there have been these two commercials that dirtied the park, and I wanted to say something. Cracker Barrel was a bad mistake, but they reverted. The Jaguar commercial was an intentional degrade of the brand. You may find that a stretch. I don’t.
I have no idea why, but whoever created that commercial did so with malevolent intent.

Jaguar is very capable of great commercials.
Try this one: https://tinyurl.com/sn75kxcp

Very cool!

And to prove that truly great car commercials can be made. This one gets my vote for the winner of the academy award for the best auto commercials of all time. https://tinyurl.com/3e4fnxps

It was the bizarre Jaguar commercial that prompted this brief article, but let me close with an offer of help: one doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that shoddy marketing damages sales or the corollary that effective marketing that talks to your customers at their level drives sales and income.
If you’d like me to take a look at your marketing – your website, email marketing or other issues, let me know. I’ll be happy to review how you are promoting and give you my viewpoint at no charge. I have been helping companies market their products for 30 years. I’ll be happy to share with you what I have seen work.
Just contact me via the info below.

Best,
Bruce