- JLR’s former head designer says he didn’t even know what woke meant.
- Some had claimed Jaguar’s rebrand would kill the company as we know it.
- Gerry McGovern says the pink Type 00 concept was inspired by Miami.
Jaguar Land Rover’s former chief creative officer, Gerry McGovern, says the frosty reception to the ‘Copy Nothing’ campaign in 2024 did more than embarrass the company for a news cycle. It forced JLR to pull other communications it had lined up for the relaunch, material that was already prepared and never made it out the door.
The old saying about any publicity being good publicity did not hold up for JLR that year. The commercial arrived with an eclectic cast of models in unusual haircuts and brightly colored clothing, no car anywhere in the frame, and the response was immediate and hostile. Tesla CEO Elon Musk called it woke. So did the President of the United States, Donald Trump. A large share of the internet went further and declared that the rebrand had just killed Jaguar outright.
Read: Jaguar’s Type 01 EV Interior Looks Like A ’70s Concept That Reached Production
Speaking recently on a podcast with Autocar, McGovern admitted he didn’t even know what “wokeism” meant at the time. “We realized that, from a comms perspective, this is being misinterpreted. So, we had to make adjustments.”
“With that film, it got taken out of context. What we were saying is, we want Jaguar to be a copy of nothing. That’s why you saw all these people who look like a copy of nothing. And then that was related to other, different types of communication that nobody got to see,” said McGovern.
“I think that where it slipped up was it got into a debate about the bigger, cultural debate around behaviors, culture in America, Musk opening platform X, Trump saying what he likes etc, and being anti-cultural. I didn’t even know what woke-ism meant at the time. It got stuck into that argument, and you even had Trump weighing in,” he added.
The hostility cooled once people actually saw the Type 00, McGovern said. With hindsight he now calls the whole episode “slightly amusing,” a description that presumably did not spring to mind while it was happening.
The casting, he explained, was meant to signal that Jaguar would be a ‘copy of nothing.’ It also tied into other material “which nobody got to see.”
Despite the backlash, he noted that Jaguar became “the most talked-about brand in the world” for four months after barely being discussed for years, adding that “on the basis of that you’d say it was a massive success.”
In painting its original Type 00 concept in a bright shade of pink, McGovern said this too wasn’t intended to be considered “woke” and instead few inspiration from Miami, where the vehicle was unveiled.
“The reason we did it in pink was because [I told the team] ‘We’re going to Miami, boys and girls, think Miami, think Florida, flamingos, think art deco, pastel colors.’ That’s where it came from.”
Heading To Production
Jaguar Type 01
Despite the negative reception to Jaguar’s promotional campaign and the original Type 00 concept, the company has forged ahead with development of its new, all-electric model. Dubbed the Type 01 for production, Jaguar has been openly testing lightly disguised prototypes and confirmed the car will hit the market with roughly 1,000 hp. The design will closely match that of the concept, although the car will morph from a two-door to a four-door.
Earlier this week, Jaguar unveiled the interior of the new car. It’s unlike any other from Jaguar, sporting a single large screen for the gauge cluster and missing out on a central infotainment display, which is basically what every other current production car has.
