Donald Trump mocks ‘woke’ Jaguar advert after firm appoints new CEO

Donald Trump has attacked luxury-car-maker Jaguar, calling it “woke”. 

Jaguar Land Rover Limited announced the appointment of its new chief executive on Monday (4 August). PB Balaji, who has been group chief financial officer of parent company Tata Motors Group since 2017, will take over from Adrian Mardell in November.

Balaji will be the first Indian in the role.

Mardell announced his retirement last week after 35 years of service. He led the controversial move to ditch Jaguar’s famous big-cat logo and focused on producing electric cars ahead of the UK’s target to half the sales of new purely fossil-fuel-powered vehicles by 2030.

Elon Musk was one of many from the “anti-woke” brigade who criticised the rebranding, but Mardell said the backlash to the brand’s new colourful and inclusive approach had nothing to do with his decision to step down. 

Taking to Truth Social, Trump, who claimed to have defeated “wokeness”, described clothes retailer American Eagle’s campaign with Sydney Sweeney as the “hottest ad out there”, then added: “On the other side of the ledger, Jaguar did a stupid and seriously woke advertisement that is a total disaster.

“Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad.”

Jaguar’s new electric vehicle concept was branded “woke” and “transgender” by right-wing critics, at the end of last year. As part of its rebranding, the company released a 30-second video that featured models of different ages, races and genders, along with phrases such as “live vivid”, “delete ordinary” and “copy nothing” over a techno soundtrack but curiously no cars.

Musk, the chief executive of rival electric car company Tesla, appeared to take issue with the advert, asking: “Do you sell cars?”

Several comments below the quip targeted the models, including one X/Twitter user referring to the backlash to an earlier Bud Light advert that featured trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

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