Yet another cynical attempt by a right-wing tabloid to turn a brand it has a grudge against into fodder for a culture war tirade.
I used to own a pink car, a limited-edition Nissan Micra convertible, one of only 100 produced to support breast cancer awareness. I loved it. It got people talking. But never once did I see it as “woke,” “politicised,” or part of some manufactured culture war.
This week, pink cars made the headlines, with the Sun taking aim at Jaguar for what it bizarrely dubbed a “woke pink rebrand.” According to the Murdoch tabloid, Jaguar triggered “outrage” in November when it launched a campaign featuring bright colours and catwalk models – hardly revolutionary territory in the world of luxury advertising.
The so-called scandal deepened, the Sun claimed, when Jaguar unveiled the “bizarre Type 00 car – a large, pink grand tourer – as well as a much-maligned new logo and badge.”
But who, exactly, was outraged? Unsurprisingly, Nigel Farage and Elon Musk were wheeled out, with Farage denouncing the rebrand as “woke” and even warning that Jaguar risked “going bust” simply for using bright colours and modern branding. The Sun eagerly amplified his remarks, presenting them not as partisan provocation from an anti-woke firebrand, but as if they reflected some kind of public consensus.
The article then cites a dramatic 97.5 percent drop in Jaguar’s European sales, implying that the use of pink and an updated design led directly to the company’s decline. What it fails to highlight clearly is that Jaguar had already announced, back in 2021, a full strategic overhaul, including ending production in late 2024 to focus on a new range of fully electric vehicles. In other words, the sales slump isn’t the result of a branding disaster, it’s the result of a planned pause in production.
Jaguar has made this clear. A company spokeswoman stated that comparing sales figures from this transitional period is “pointless,” and reiterated that the rebrand has “nothing to do with sales decline.” The rebrand is part of the carmaker’s long-term “Reimagine” strategy, a shift toward a fully electric future.
Of course, none of this stops the Sun from hyping its tired anti-woke narrative. It even quotes a few cherry-picked social media posts moaning about “woke nonsense” and declaring that Jaguar has “lost the plot.”
Elon Musk, whose own car company Tesla let’s not forget has seen a 40 percent sales drop in Europe this year, coinciding with rising public unease about his politics, saw fit to taunt Jaguar with a “Do you sell cars?” quip.
Sigh, yet another cynical attempt by a right-wing tabloid to turn a brand it has a grudge against into fodder for a culture war tirade.
And for the record, pink cars look great.
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