'All polish, no punch': Adland reacts to Jaguar’s rebrand

Jaguar revealed its new brand identity on 19 November, as part of the sports and luxury car manufacturer’s relaunch as an electric-only brand. 

The launch included images and a short film, “Copy nothing,” showcasing the fresh visual language of the brand, as well as marketing slogans such as “Break moulds” and “Delete ordinary”.

The brand film featured models wearing eccentric clothing and a repetaed use of the colours yellow, red and blue, referencing "the painter's palette". The film showed no cars.  

Jaguar also released its reimagined logo, spelled with a mix of lower and upper case letters as "jaGUar", and a new version of the Jaguar “leaper”.

Gerry McGovern, chief creative officer at Jaguar, said: “This is a reimagining that recaptures the essence of Jaguar, returning it to the values that once made it so loved, but making it relevant for a contemporary audience.” 

According to Rawdon Glower, managing director, the rebrand helps Jaguar “reclaim its originality”, while it also aims to “inspire a new generation.”

The first stage of the relaunch made its rounds on social media, receiving varied reactions. 

Jaguar will release further details of its branding assets and visual language at Miami Art Week on 2 December. 

In 2021, Accenture Interactive was appointed to Jaguar Land Rover's creative account. The agency declined to comment on the latest campaign. 

This is how adland reacted to the rebrand.

Sunitha Natarajan, director, digital strategy, Social Panga

I feel the confusion was expected, given Jag’s consistent image since the 60s. However, this familiarity also necessitated a drastic change. The company has some big goals with EV in the future and hence, this transformation showcases their commitment to innovation. The timing is perfect to redefine their legacy. Rather than mere confusion, this discussion sparks healthy curiosity, which will benefit the brand's future endeavours. We've only seen the beginning; the full picture of Jaguar's efforts is yet to unfold.

P.S. Kudos to Nothing for instantly capitalising on the moment with their clever bio and logo interplay!

Yash Chandiramani, founder & chief strategist, Admatazz

The creative industry knows better than most how annoying it can get when people with little or no experience in building brands opine on our work. We don't know what their business proposition is, we don't know what they aim to position as or what their new TG is. We should hold our thoughts before trashing the design based on subjective feelings.

The brand has changed logos before as well and only time will tell how this change is helping.

I'm more curious to know how they're going to use this to create a distinct memory in people's mind. Do I love their colourful ad without the car? No. Can I predict if this logo change is a good or bad move without being privy to their business strategy? Also no.

Richard Exon, founder, Joint 

Nothing about the Jaguar rebrand makes me want to reconsider the brand personally, but maybe that’s the whole point. The brand needs to engage a whole new audience and, who knows, maybe somebody somewhere has a voracious appetite for Jaguar’s new recipe. 

Professionally, though, it does feel horribly generic and looks exactly like what you’d expect from a brand with not much to say but a desperate desire to modernise, which is a tragedy, given the product is about to change beyond recognition. Let’s hope the rebrand doesn’t slow business down. 

Jack Maycock, associate strategy director, Shape History

Jaguar’s biggest mistake wasn’t the visuals it put out; it’s the timing and the lack of a coherent narrative to go alongside it, basically allowing critics to fill in the gaps about "why". Some brands can lean into their heritage without sparking any controversy. But by simply taking a more expressive and future-facing approach, Jaguar is now being called “woke”. Surely there’s room for both approaches without turning progress into a cultural battleground?

All this to say, brands must know what they’re walking into. For many, it seems like the only way to “win” is to stick to the safety of their heritage, even if it means staying in their comfort zone and missing the chance to evolve. We need to move past the view that all branding is a cultural commentary and instead just treat the rebrand on its merits for the message or values it is trying to portray. Clinging to the past might keep critics quiet for a while, but it won’t solve the challenges brands face today or tomorrow.

Tom Munckton, executive creative director, Fold7Design

We tend to have a strange relationship with heritage brands; preferring preservation-mode iterative evolution, over complete transformation. It's a big win, and somewhat improbable in terms of achieving such a huge change for a brand in this mould. As brand design building and marketing communication draw ever closer, it's more likely we'll see this happening. Creating short-term conversation—positive or negative in reaction—but long-term brand value destruction.

Harry Sandhu, senior creative, Jung Von Matt London

Jaguar’s rebrand is all polish, no punch—a whisper when it should be a roar. Stripped back is fine, but stripped of meaning? That’s where it stalls.

Great brands aren’t built on aesthetics alone, they’re built on stories that make you feel. Right now, Jaguar feels like it’s lost its soul, and when that happens, what’s left?

Gabor Schreier, chief creative officer, Saffron Brand Consultants

This is a radical departure from the past. It smells a bit like a generalised panic reaction of the established car world to shift to EV mobility at all costs (a bit like Audi in China). It shows that established car companies are willing to give up on assets that were holy cows some time ago to please the biggest automobile market in the world—China.

Jaguar has stopped production, and the new models will see the light in 2026, which will be much more expensive than before. It must bridge quite a long time without a new product. So, it needs to provoke and keep the conversation going with the audiences it has deeply irritated and the new ones it must win over. It’s a very risky but intriguing journey until we see the product—and how that new brand identity really works in the new cars.

Will Bosanko, managing partner, Brandpie

Jaguar’s rebrand is clearly a pivotal moment for the brand as it steps into the electric future. Reinvention is vital to stay relevant—but there’s a fine line between reimagining and completely revolutionising. The challenge for legacy brands, like Jaguar, in seeking to diversify and maintain relevance is to evolve without alienating the loyal supporters who’ve built their reputation.

We’ve seen this play out before—Burberry’s 2018 rebrand springs to mind. In chasing younger audiences with a radical shift, it risked severing ties with the very DNA that made it iconic. Jaguar might be walking the same tightrope here. Stripping away the big cat and leaning into a hyper-modern aesthetic feels like an effort to make noise, but how will the "copy nothing" ethos shape its products and experiences?

The real opportunity here isn’t about a new logo but about successful diversification. How will Jaguar turn its brand into a value multiplier that bridges its legacy with its future ambitions in EV? How will it bring its loyal customers along while also enticing new audiences? A great rebrand doesn’t discard the past – it uses it as the foundation to build something bolder, broader, and better. Jaguar’s next steps will decide if this rebrand truly powers its momentum or leaves it stalled.

The original story by Campaign Live has been tweaked by Campaign Asia-Pacific to add regional sentiment.