What’s going on here?
A couple of things, I think. The two ethics issues are trustworthiness and competence.
Apparently Jaguar has decided that it is within the mission of a car manufacturer to promote transsexuals and other forms of dubious sexuality. Or maybe clowns, based on the characters above that inhabit the company’s very strange ad. Have you seen it? No?
Here you go….
That’s right, no mention of driving, cars, or anything related to transportation. This is a cognitive dissonance scale maneuver for someone seeking a ridiculously narrow market. The ad says “being sexually ambiguous is cool.” Is it? I don’t think so; I think being sexually ambiguous is a problem. Like many minorities with problems, I understand the urge to insist that the problem is really an advantage and a badge of honor, something to take pride in, but why is Jaguar making that argument at the expense of promoting their product?
The ad is propaganda tinged with virtue-signalling for those who think extreme advocacy for marginal sexual identities is virtuous. I don’t regard it as virtuous. I regard this ad as a company abusing its influence by presuming to indoctrinate the public to achieve an interest group’s agenda. Meanwhile, the ad is incompetent advertising, since it doesn’t promote the product the company is supposed to be selling.
At least when Bud Light decided to promote transsexuals while marketing beer, the beer was somewhere in evidence. For all we know after watching that Jaguar ad, the new Jaguar looks like a Stanley Steamer.
And the Great Stupid is still rolling on…
Ethics Alarms 
“Copy Nothing” while copying Apple’s two-word profoundly incoherent sloganizing, and moving in lockstep in equally garish florescent costume.
Maybe next time let the copywriter into the same room as the choreographer and costume specialist.
And they even stooped to copying the sledge-hammer from the iconic Apple Super Bowl ad. If you’re going to be bold, you’d better be original too…
Oh, and sticking an Asian guy in a yellow suit? It borders on cliché.
jvb
It’s a tribute to Michael Myers.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QHZR9SA5pOg
I’ll see your Myers and raise you a Bowie.
I don’t see the Myers as at all similar.
This is historic.
It’s not every day that we see an iconic auto company commit suicide and broadcast it to the world.
And to further ensure their demise, they’ve committed to going all EV by next year (as other manufacturers are cutting back), and ditching their classic “leaping cat” logo.
The real question is:”How does this play with the type of person who buys a Jaaaag?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eWIrBOc3zE
You have to know your core demographic.
😉
I suppose I should now be embarrassed to admit that I’ve had two… a ’66 E-Type roadster, and a ’96 XJ6 (Shoulda kept the XKE 😦 ). Never ran over anyone’s dog, though.
British car joke:
Q: Why do Brits drink warm beer?
A: Lucas refrigerators.
Lucas: The Prince of Darkness.
Good thing the original “Top Gear” guys are no longer on the show. They’d mock this by doing something like all dressing up in clown suits and clown makeup and driving around in clown cars on an airfield at high speed. Or something.
Ooops, sorry Wim, I hadn’t watched the Top Gear snippet. Hilarious.
It’s my understanding they’re also going to sell no cars during 2025. By choice. I can’t believe the people at Tata are going to put up with this.
This may be my shortcoming/bias, but I don’t believe people like this even drive.
The inordinate amount of time required to maintain this type of…um…image suggests they off-load the mundanity of transport to Uber or Lyft…or perhaps Gossamer Wings or Magic Carpet.
PWS
Trying to determine the size and preferences of small groups brings to mind my favorite William F. Buckley lines. In the ‘sixties when the homosexual population was evidently pegged at three percent of the general population, Buckley said, “If only three percent of the population is homosexual, I’ve met all of them.”
One of the amazing things about that ad is the very first two words — ‘create exuberant’.
Exuberant? Where? Those people spent the entire ad looking mad and glowering at the audience.
If I saw that ad on TV, I would have no idea what it was supposed to do.
Generally speaking, advertisements try to create good feeling or positive vibes towards whatever they are promoting. Sometimes that’s just silly, but it tries to resonate positivity towards the product.
This ad? The tone might make a lot of sense if they were advertising crematorium equipment for the Third Reich. To make me want to buy a car?
Sheesh.
All that, and … “exuberant” is an ADJECTIVE! Direct objects need to be … OBJECTS. You know, NOUNS like, oh, say, “exuberance.”
Right you are — I missed that.
But in my defense, the ad is such a downer it’s hard to pay attention.
PWS
The Jaguar managing director is doubling down:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/11/22/jaguar-boss-says-criticism-advert-hatred-intolerance/#comment?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first
It’s so funny how extreme progressives go too far for virtually everyone, then say it’s everyone else’s fault they’re disliked. It’s like saying you only missed because the clay pigeons wouldn’t stop moving.