Elon Musk and others pile on mocking luxury car brand’s ‘woke’ new ad: ‘Bud Light 2.0’
British luxury auto company Jaguar launched a radical revamp of its classic brand with a new woke ad that’s raising eyebrows across the internet.
The 30-second spot begins with a bright yellow elevator opening to reveal half a dozen or so androgynous models dressed in vibrantly colored, monochromatic costumes — but not a car in sight.
The ad then flashes the models individually, showcasing their dramatic outfits paired with vacuous phrases such as “create exuberant,” “live vivid,” “delete ordinary,” “break molds” and “copy nothing.”
Critics are calling the flop “Bud Light 2.0” after a video resurfaced of the company’s brand strategy director boasting about implementing DEI programs and policies at the company — like gender transitioning at work.
Bud Light lost billions of dollars in market share last year after a disastrous and widely panned team-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Speaking at an LGBTQ awards show last month, Jaguar’s head of brand strategy Santino Pietrosanti pulled back the curtain on the company’s changing culture — and bragged about implementing a woke agenda in the workplace.
“We’ve established more than 15 DEI groups such as Pride, Women in Engineering, and Neurodiversity Matters. We’ve launched major policy revisions such as ‘transitioning at work’ to drive equity and support for our communities embracing individuality as our superpower,” he gushed to a cheering audience at the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards in London.
But not everyone is so impressed with the iconic company’s left turn.
The debut commercial, which has more than 50 million views on X, had haters lining up to trash it.
“Do you sell cars?” Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk snarked in a reply.
“This is so the wrong timing for this. I can understand the C suite being conned into this in 2022, but you have completely misread the moment. Bud Light 2.0,” wrote columnist John Gabriel.
Many users questioned the wisdom of Jaguar’s marketing team, and some even offered up some solutions.
“Hi, @Jaguar. I fixed your awful ad. It took two minutes,” tweeted one user, who attached a faux car ad featuring a scantily clad model standing beside a black luxury sedan.
“The damage this Jaguar marketing did to a once iconic brand should be studied,” another user jabbed. “Their social team just making an absolute mess of all the reputation capital #Jaguar built over decades. Stop letting dumb interns hijack brands.
Some users even said they were contemplating canceling their Jaguar orders in light of the controversial spot.
The company has since hit pause on introducing any new models until 2026 while it gears up to relaunch as an all-electric brand — despite declining demand for such vehicles.
