The luxury carmaker Jaguar has reportedly dismissed longtime design chief Gerry McGovern — the architect behind the company’s controversial rebrand — after European sales plunged nearly 98% in April 2025.
McGovern, who served as Chief Creative Officer at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) for two decades, played a central role in the 2024 rebranding that replaced Jaguar’s iconic leaping‑cat logo and introduced a polarizing marketing campaign. That campaign featured avant‑garde visuals — bright colors, androgynous models, and slogans such as “create exuberant,” “live vivid,” and “delete ordinary” — but conspicuously omitted any actual cars.
By April 2025, registered Jaguar sales in Europe collapsed from roughly 1,961 units the previous year down to just 49 — a staggering 97.5% drop. Within days of a new CEO assuming control of JLR, McGovern was reportedly escorted from company headquarters and dismissed with immediate effect.
Critics argue that the rebrand abandoned Jaguar’s heritage — its classic blend of British elegance, luxury, and refined engineering — in favor of a flashy, identity‑driven image that alienated traditional buyers. The campaign’s aesthetic clashed with the expectations of luxury‑vehicle customers, who value craftsmanship and prestige over social messaging.
Some analysts within the branding community warned that the collapse may not simply be a blip, but a self‑inflicted wound. The transformation toward electric-only models and high‑concept design may have been too drastic, too fast, ignoring the core Jaguar customer base in favor of a younger, “urban, design‑minded” demographic — a gamble that appears to have failed spectacularly.
For those who held onto Jaguar as a symbol of tradition, quality, and understated status, this episode serves as a stark reminder: when a legacy brand detaches from its roots to chase cultural trends, it risks alienating its foundation — and destroying its bottom line.
