We've seen plenty of unpopular and/or controversial rebrands over the last few years, and nothing seems to stir up quite as much debate as a new car logo. From Kia's 'unreadable' wordmark to countless flattened versions of existing logos, vehicular design always evokes an emotional response, perhaps because of the loyalty these brand foster among fans. But in five years of covering rebrands, I've never seen anything quite like the response to the new Jaguar branding.
It's rare that a rebrand gets everyone from branding experts to Elon Musk talking, but this one has certainly broken the industry bubble to become a bonafide piece of mainstream news. But while one of the main criticisms of the marketing imagery, with its diversity, colourful outfits and notable absence of a single car, is its apparent woke-baiting, most sides of the cultural and political divide seem to be calling this one a misstep. If anything, then, the whole enterprise has proven somewhat unifying.
