It was an ordinary day. Reading about the new Jaguar automobile. Seems that when many people consider a new Jaguar, they picture a British-made car purring confidently along the Italian coastline - a vision of familiarity that conveys "that dreaming, longing feeling we all love." Well, those people are now not sure what to think about the Jaguar since the the 89-year-old company announced a radical rebranding this past week that featured loud colors and androgynous people - but no cars. Jaguar, the company says, will now be JaGUar. It will produce only electric vehicles beginning in 2026. And say goodbye to British racing green, Cotswold Blue and black. Its colors are henceforth electric pink, red and yellow, according to a video that has received backlash online. Its mission statement: "Create exuberance. Live vivid. Delete ordinary. Break moulds." "Intrigued?" @Jaguar posted on social media. "Weird and unsettled" is morel like it, Vogt wrote on Instagram. "Especially now, with the world feeing so dystopian," the Cyprus-based brand designer wrote, "a heritage brand like jaguar should be conveying feelings of safety, stability, and maybe a hint of rebellion - the kind that shakes things up in a good way, not in a way that unsettles." Jaguar, a sturdy symbol of British tradition and refinement, was one of several iconic companies that announced significant rebranding in recent weeks, upending a series of commercial - and, yes, cultural - landmarks by which many modern human beings sort each other, carve out identities and recognize the world around them.
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| The JaGUar symbol |
Campbell's, the soupy, 155-year-old American icon immortalized in pop culture decades ago by Andy Warhl, is ready for a new, soupless name. Comcast's corporate reorganization means that there will soon be two television networks with "NBC" in their name - CNBC and MSNBC - that will no longer have any corporate connection to NBC News, a U.S. legacy news outlet. So how much do our consumer decisions - what we buy, were we travel and even whom we elect - speak to who we are? Certainly, it's a question for those privileged enough to be able to afford such choices. But, volumes of research in the art and science of branding - from "brandr," an old Norse word for burning symbols into the hides of livestock - say those factors do contribute to the modern sense of identity. So rebranding, especially of heritage names, can be a deeply felt affront to consumers. "It can feel like the brand is turning its back on everything that it stood for - and therefore it feels like its turning its back on us, the people who subscribe to that idea or ideology," said Ali Marmaduke, strategy director with the Amsterdam-based Brand Potential. As for me... I'm not sure what to think! My memory isn't what it used to be and now....with all the new names and identities, how will I ever find what I am after when I check online websites or walk the aisles at my local grocery store. Will a bag of cat litter now be called a bag of "soupe de poop"? Hey....I guess I shouldn't have typed that last line since it will definitely give someone an idea as to a new name for their old product. It was another extraordiary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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