Jaguar is sacking ad agency behind its ‘woke’ pink rebrand after disastrous campaign saw carmaker universally panned
JAGUAR Land Rover is set to sack the advertising agency behind its controversial pink rebrand after facing a fierce backlash.
The iconic British car manufacturer sparked outrage in November when it launched a glossy ad campaign with bright colours and catwalk models.
Soon after, it unveiled the bizarre Type 00 concept car – a large, pink grand tourer – as well as a much-maligned new logo and badge.
The likes of Nigel Farage and even Elon Musk led the critics, with Farage describing it as “woke” and warned the automaker risked “going bust” due to its new design choice.
Musk turned the knife on X, simply asking Jaguar “‘Do you sell cars?”
Writing for The Sun last year, Julia Hartley-Brewer held up the move as another example of “a bid to shove ’progressive’ and ‘woke’ ideology down our throats”.
She said the ad itself looked like a “miserable box of Quality Street who’ve accidentally wandered on to the set of the Hunger Games”.
When the 30-second ad was first unveiled, flashing up a number of slogans, including “live vivid”, “delete ordinary” and “copy nothing”, fans on social media weren’t much kinder.
One Facebook user commented: “If I wasn’t sure before, now I’m convinced Jaguar have completely lost the plot. This woke nonsense won’t gain anything.”
Another wrote: “Please tell me this is fake. Jaguar really has hit the self destruct button.”
And a third said: “As someone who worked for this iconic brand up until production cessation in June it really does sadden me to see the direction the company has decided to take.”
Now, months later, the company has seemingly turned its back on the agency that put it all together.
According to The Telegraph, the brand has launched a review of its advertising account – which is held by Accenture Song and its in-house agency Spark44 until mid-2026.
A spokesperson for Jaguar Land Rover said: “As a matter of policy JLR does not comment on any supplier arrangements.”
They continued: “The reinvention of the Jaguar brand was planned to attract significant global attention and comment; we wanted to spark online debate and get people talking about us.
“The scale of the reaction has been unprecedented; this shows just how much of an emotional attachment Jaguar has with so many people.
“Accenture Song is our incumbent agency; contracted into 2026; They have been working with JLR and our House of Brands for over 4 years now and this has been a successful partnership.”
Sun Motors has contacted Accenture Song for a comment.
CH-CH-CHANGES
Jaguar’s wild transition has long been on the cards.
Last year, executives made the call to discontinue their flagship petrol motors, including the XE, XF and F-Type, as well as E-Pace and I-Pace EVs.
Indeed, only the F-Pace will continue into 2026 – although it’s been pulled from the UK market along with the rest of the aforementioned models.
Jag then plans to fully relaunch next year as an all-electric brand, selling high-end, zero-emissions cars badged with its redesigned logo.
To that end, the company has invested heavily in new designs, concept cars and other ads to go with the reveal.
Defending the campaign last year, JLR’s Managing Director Rawdon Glover said to the Financial Times: “If we play in the same way that everybody else does, we’ll just get drowned out.”