McGovern defends ‘Copy Nothing’: ‘I didn’t even know what woke-ism meant’

Former JLR design boss Gerry McGovern says Jaguar’s “Copy Nothing” rebrand was “taken out of context” and became caught up in an American cultural argument he did not anticipate.

Speaking to Autocar UK’s My Week in Cars podcast in his first interview since leaving JLR, McGovern defended the 2024 campaign, which featured models in bright clothing and no cars, and was widely criticised on its release.

“With that film, it got taken out of context,” he said. “What we were saying is, we want Jaguar to be a copy of nothing. That’s why you saw all these people who look like a copy of nothing. And then that was related to other, different types of communication that nobody got to see.

“I think that where it slipped up was it got into a debate about the bigger, cultural debate around behaviours, culture in America, Musk opening platform X – say what you like – Trump saying what he likes et cetera, and being anti-cultural.

“I didn’t even know what woke-ism meant at the time. It got stuck into that argument, and you even had Trump [weighing in].”

Trump commented some nine months after the campaign launched, posting on his Truth Social platform that the advertisement was a “disaster” and a “stupid, and seriously WOKE advertisement”.

“The CEO [Adrian Mardell] just resigned in disgrace, and the company is in absolute turmoil,” Trump’s post read. “Who wants to buy a Jaguar after looking at that disgraceful ad.”

Following the backlash, Jaguar shelved additional campaign material that had already been prepared, the “other types of communication” McGovern says nobody got to see.

The campaign accompanied the reveal of the Jaguar Type 00 electric concept, part of the brand’s shift to become an electric-only luxury carmaker. It came at the end of McGovern’s 24 years at JLR, during which he rose to chief creative officer and led the design of the new Defender and several generations of Range Rover and Discovery.

On the podcast, McGovern dismissed rumours he had been sacked, describing them as “all pretty inaccurate”, and said he wished the company the best. He did not give a full account of what happened.

The detail around his exit has never been clear. In early December 2025, Autocar India reported he had left the business and was ‘escorted out of the building’. Early reports pointed to friction between McGovern and JLR’s newly installed chief executive, PB Balaji. JLR responded about two weeks later, telling Automotive News Europe it was “untrue” that McGovern’s employment had been terminated, but declined to confirm whether he was still working at the company. In late March, JLR confirmed the departure, telling staff in an internal memo that McGovern was leaving to establish his own creative consultancy.

McGovern said his design career will continue. “I want to do new stuff,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of approaches. I’m very particular about what I want and who I work with. But I’m definitely going to do more cars. They’re in my blood.”

He is currently an advisor to Norton Motorcycles. McGovern started at Rover Group, where he designed the original Land Rover Freelander, then ran design at Lincoln in the United States. He returned to Land Rover in the mid-2000s and delivered the LRX concept that became the Range Rover Evoque, later overseeing the current Range Rover and the reinvention of the Defender.

McGovern sat on the JLR board and was a reportedly a favourite of the late Ratan Tata, former chairman of the wider Tata Group.

In the podcast, McGovern also discussed his career, the challenge of developing brand identity, and the move from designing cars to motorbikes.