Jaguar rebrand is pink, diverse and doesn’t feature any cars

An avant-garde, 30-second spot released this week shows a diverse group of expressionless people dressed in brightly colored, sculptural garments as they stride wordlessly around a fuchsia landscape and pose with props like a yellow sledgehammer. It closes with a look at the carmaker’s new logo, styled as “jaGuar." The video displays phrases such as “copy nothing" and “create exuberant," but it doesn’t include any cars.

The rebranding campaign partly aims to convey Jaguar’s new design philosophy of exuberant modernism, the company said. Jaguar plans to reveal a new “Design Vision Concept" on Dec. 2 at Miami Art Week.

The rebrand comes at a crucial time for Jaguar, which has been struggling for some time to differentiate itself from its German competitors and plans to go all in on electric cars, according to auto industry observers. Jaguar earlier this month said that it would largely discontinue making its gas and diesel models as it prepares to emerge with all-electric cars in 2026.

To throw its substantial brand history into the air is nonetheless a radical step, according to Andy Palmer, an auto industry consultant who previously held executive posts at automobile manufacturers Nissan Motor and Austin Rover. Jaguar, launched in 1935, has some racing heritage and a fan base that includes middle-aged bankers who admire sports cars, he said. But the video indicates that Jaguar is now aiming to position itself to a younger, more liberal and even more affluent audience, Palmer said.

“It’s unusual to see [that] a storied brand so radically wants to change its position," he said. “That’s brave, and brave can be foolish if the customers don’t like it."

The spot’s diverse casting is also striking at a moment when some conservatives are mounting pressure campaigns on marketers they perceive as “woke."

The relaunch campaign quickly caused a stir online, including heavy skepticism. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and chief executive of electric-vehicle maker Tesla, responded to Jaguar’s video on X by asking, “Do you sell cars?"

Other X users asked whether the video was a joke, said it would cause Jaguar’s downfall and started using the hashtag “BoycottJaguar." Some also criticized the ad’s use of diverse actors.

Jaguar replied to some of the critiques, calling the rebrand “a pivotal moment," “a renaissance" and “the new beginning."

“Our brand relaunch for Jaguar is a bold and imaginative reinvention and as expected it has attracted attention and debate," a spokesman for Jaguar said in an email. “As proud custodians at such a remarkable point in Jaguar’s history we have preserved iconic symbols while taking a dramatic leap forward."

Marketing professionals said the campaign could work in the long run.

“Aesthetically, it doesn’t tell a very convincing story from the video," said Daniel Andersson, chief creative officer of branding strategy company FutureBrand in North America. But it remains to be seen how the rebrand will land with customers after Jaguar fills it out with actual automobiles, he said.

“This is at least setting up some kind of expectations," Andersson said. “For a brand with such heritage, removing all the heritage and setting up a new bar, that’s exciting and intriguing, and it remains to be seen whether they deliver such things or not."

The video is a classic example of the “rolling-thunder execution," in which marketers get attention for a move before they actually make it, according to Chuck Byers, a marketing teaching professor at Santa Clara University.

While the campaign so far has generated some buzz, Byers said it would take 12 to 18 months to know whether the rebranding was a success. “It’s way too early to tell," he said.

Still, misreading the audience might be detrimental to Jaguar when the company also made risky decisions to largely stop producing new cars, according to Palmer, the auto industry executive.

“It is existential if they get it wrong," he said.

Write to Mengqi Sun at mengqi.sun@wsj.com