The Jaguar car brand, iconic for its appearances in several James Bond films and held as the epitome of masculinity and style, is receiving backlash for its “woke” rebranding. The controversy first began with a brand-new commercial from the European car company. The commercial, with its avant-garde aesthetic, features men in dresses, non-descript androgynous actors, and an all-pink background. The actors are dressed in extremely colorful and bizarre clothing, with phrases like “create exuberant” and “live vivid” appearing across the screen, while not a single car makes its appearance during the ad. It’s a jarring change from a previous ad last year that featured the Jaguar as a mysterious, sleek mode of transportation taking off in the dead of night, driven by a man in the shadows.

The new ad was quickly mocked. Charles Gasparino, author of Go Woke Go Broke; The Inside Story of the Radicalization of Corporate America, criticized the ad in an op-ed for The New York Post. “There was something telling in the latest example of idiotic and woke corporate virtue signaling that came courtesy of high-end car manufacturer Jaguar. In addition to the spectacle of an odd-looking man running around in an ill-fitting dress without a car in sight, there was the equally ­bizarre rationalization of [the ad],” wrote Gasparino. He criticized a statement from a Jaguar official that the commercial was meant to “move away from traditional automotive stereotypes.” “But last I checked, men who prefer a lifestyle that blurs traditional gender roles represent around 0.5% of the US population. Jaguars, meanwhile, can cost you anywhere from about $50,000 to around $92,000, so it’s not exactly affordable to the family of four, transgender or otherwise,” Gasparino wrote pointedly.

The controversy only broadened after Jaguar’s concept for its new EV car, the Jaguar Type 00, was leaked. With the whopping price tag of $126,519.50, the “Miami Pink” car was quickly criticized, with comparisons to a “pink Batmobile.” “I have a feeling @Jaguar may be about to find out that there are fewer well off non binary woke lesbians of colour than their echo chamber assured them there were,” wrote one user on X. “After nearly two weeks on life support, Jaguar was officially pronounced dead this morning. A moment of silence please. We lost a legend,” wrote another. A press release from Jaguar pushed back, stating the new ad and concept were just a return to Jaguar as it has been. “Jaguar is recapturing its original ethos to ‘Copy Nothing,’” the statement said. “Following the debut of its bold new visual identity last month, the next step on its transformational journey has been revealed in the form of a distinctive design vision concept. Jaguar Type 00 is an example of Jaguar at its best. A fearless statement. An object of desire. A concept with bold forms and exuberant proportions to inspire future Jaguars.”