Two years after Jaguar relaunched with an ad that had no car in it, Jaguar Type 01 is in every frame of its new campaign, with Florence Pugh beside it and Annie Leibovitz behind the camera.
Jaguar Type 01 was photographed with Florence Pugh after its world premiere in October. The premiere ran displays in Times Square and Dumbo, plus the Lower East Side, and finished at STORIED NYC, a venue that once housed Leibovitz’s studio. Pugh was named Jaguar’s first brand ambassador for its new era at the premiere, and the Leibovitz series is the next chapter of that partnership.
Is Jaguar softening its approach?
The question goes back to the relaunch. In late November 2024, Jaguar dropped her historied but dowdy cape. The slogan “Copy Nothing” had a video of brightly dressed models with not a car in sight. It was widely mocked, and Elon Musk replied “Do you sell cars?” Musk has never copied anything, but then he’s never invented anything either. Some may wear fascist mockery as a badge. Some ultra-right-wing wingnuts called the campaign “woke” as if being woke was bad. The recent US election shows just how out of step that kind of thinking is. Managing director Rawdon Glover defended the campaign and quite rightly accused some critics of “hatred and intolerance”.
Above: 70mai A900 Dashcam + 4G Hardwire kit Unboxing and Review
#70maiA900, #70mai, #DashCam, #RedtigerF77, #GayCarBoys
Help Support Gay Car Boys Subscribe to our Youtube Channel by SMASHING THE BUTTON ABOVE
ABOVE: Jaguar Type 01 with Florence Pugh
The Type 00 concept followed in early December 2024. Jaguar showed it at Miami Art Week, an art fair rather than a motor show, and replaced the leaping cat logo. Many, including me, thought deleting the Leaper was a terrible gaffe. Gerry McGovern, JLR’s chief creative officer and the driving force behind Type 00, left in December 2025 after reports he was dismissed. JLR confirmed his departure. In fact, it seems almost everyone who wanted this project is gone.
Despite this, the design held firm, and the production Jaguar Type 01 is very close to the Type 00 concept in the ad campaign.
Sadly, the original ad campaign only ever saw the first of four after the programme was cancelled. This time online reaction to the car was split, though warmer than it was for the concept. It’s a four-door electric grand tourer with a 735kW tri-motor driveline, an 850V system, and 724km of WLTP range. It’s also the first production Jaguar on Jaguar Electric Architecture (JEA), and it succeeds the XJ. Let’s hope it isn’t the last. Glover, still managing director, called it “a luxury grand tourer for a new era”.
What changed is the presentation. The 2024 video left the car out entirely. The Leibovitz series puts it in each shot, beside a household-name actor, shot by the most famous portrait photographer alive. On the evidence, the car didn’t soften, it’s just that Jaguar played this hand differently.
Jaguar Type 01 and the famous faces before it
Famous faces are an old Jaguar habit. Steve McQueen owned a 1956 Jaguar XKSS, chassis 713, nicknamed “Green Rat”. He reputedly collected so many speeding tickets in it that he feared for his licence, and it’s now at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
In 2014, Jaguar’s first Super Bowl ad, “Good to be Bad”, cast the wonderful actors Ben Kingsley and Tom Hiddleston as British villains, with Mark Strong alongside them. Tom Hooper directed it to launch the F-Type Coupe. It won a Global Effie, and the campaign moved to the XE in 2015.
Leibovitz’s dance card is even more impressive. She photographed John Lennon and Yoko Ono for the December 1980 Rolling Stone cover, hours before Lennon’s tragic death. Her August 1991 Vanity Fair cover showed Demi Moore pregnant and nude. She took portraits of the late Queen Elizabeth II in 2007, and she shot Caitlyn Jenner for the 2015 “Call Me Caitlyn” Vanity Fair cover.
She’s worked for a tyre maker before, too. Leibovitz shot the Pirelli calendar in 2000, using Mark Morris dancers for her first nudes. Her 2016 Pirelli calendar dropped the pin-up format for accomplished women, including Serena Williams and Patti Smith. The writer Susan Sontag was her partner from 1989 until Sontag’s death in 2004.
Pugh is a British actor, Oscar-nominated for Little Women, and her other films include Oppenheimer and Black Widow.
The Leibovitz portraits
“What interested me most about this portrait series was photographing two extraordinary and contrasting subjects,” Leibovitz said. “Florence brings warmth, presence and humanity, while Type 01 is sculpted, precise and striking in its form. Rather than treating the car as a backdrop, I wanted to photograph them both with the same curiosity, exploring their relationship as two distinct characters within the frame.”
“I’ve always been drawn to people and brands that are unapologetically original, which is one of the reasons this partnership with Jaguar feels so natural,” Pugh said. “Collaborating with Annie Leibovitz on these images was a remarkable experience. She has an incredible ability to capture character and individuality.”
Carlee Hardaker, Jaguar’s Marketing and Communications Director, said Leibovitz’s ability to tell stories through imagery made her “the ideal photographer to interpret both Florence and Type 01”. “Florence Pugh is the face of our new era. Annie Leibovitz is the lens,” Hardaker said.
At STORIED, guests and attending talent were photographed by Frankie Aldino, a mentee of Leibovitz whom she recommended personally, as part of Jaguar’s support for emerging artists.
Jaguar Type 01 is designed and engineered in the UK, and built there too. It’s priced from about $300,000 plus on-roads, orders open in 2027, and delivery timing is to follow.
Above: Aion V Luxury Shows Legacy Brands How to Make Cars
#GACAionV, #GAC, #EVReview, #ToyotaRAV4, #GayCarBoys
Help Support Gay Car Boys Subscribe to our Youtube Channel by SMASHING THE BUTTON ABOVE
More Jaguar Stories
- 2026 Jaguar Type 01 Is the XJ Heir at Under Half a Spectre
- Jaguar Type 01 Interior Puts a Brass Spine Down the Middle
- Jaguar Type 01 Drives Monaco Before Electric GT Reveal
Alan Zurvas is the founder and editor of Gay Car Boys, Australia's leading LGBTQI+ automotive publication. Before launching GCB in 2008, Alan's automotive writing was published in SameSame.com.au and the Star Observer. With over 16 years of hands-on car reviewing experience, Alan brings an honest, irreverent voice to every review — championing value and innovation over brand loyalty.
Leave a Reply