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James May appears to have backtracked on his comments about a new Jaguar advert after calling it “marketing b******s”.
The new campaign by the car manufacturer caused a stir among its loyal and traditional fanbase, as it featured a cast of colourful characters – and no car. The modernist video also featured the brand’s new futuristic logo and included slogans such as, “Break Moulds,” “Create exuberant,” and “Copy nothing”. The car itself is said to be unveiled during Miami Art Week.
The Top Gear and Grand Tour host’s initial reaction to the advert back in November was to say, “I’m largely ambivalent about the ad – it’s just marketing b******s – but I do think the world needs to move on from the E-Type”, in a post on X/Twitter.
However, he has since added more context to his thoughts admitting, “I can’t remember the last time that I was this excited to see a new car revealed”, in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Monday (2 December).
“And the fact is you are talking about a new car on the Today programme, that’s got to be a bit of a result for Jaguar hasn’t it?”
He added that he felt that the company had made a strategic business decision to explore a contemporary market after business had slowed down.
“As far as I can make out, Jaguar relying on all those old ideas about heritage and tradition and so on, had shrunk to a little more than a cottage industry in car making terms,” he continued.
”Social media is full of a lot of people ranting about exactly those things but the fact is they weren’t working, because hardly any Jaguars were sold.
“So they need some sort of new idea. I’m not sure what it is and part of me even thinks that that advert is a bit of a joke, and they’re going to come out with another one where a huge Jaguar comes and eats everybody.”
He added, “I’m not a businessperson and I don’t know very much about marketing and advertising. I just hope in my heart that they have come up with something genuinely contemporary and they haven’t in the last moment resorted to, despite their androgynous multi-hued advert, giving us something that’s faux-heritage.”
Meanwhile, the programme reported that Jenny Buckley, boss of EV buying website, electrifying.com, had seen the car and reported, “Nothing has made my jaw drop as much in 27 years of reporting on cars”.
Jaguar’s managing director, Rawdon Glover, denied that the video was meant to be “woke”, and said he was disappointed by the “vile hatred and intolerance” in comments about individuals in the clip.
