This is the self-styled marketing guru who masterminded the ‘woke‘ rebranding of the iconic Jaguar car which has sparked furious reaction and ridicule around the world, MailOnline can reveal.
Santino Pietrosanti, who boasted at an awards dinner that Jaguar had ‘established over 15 DEI groups’ as part of a ‘transformative journey’, is head of brand at the historic British car company.
Originally from the USA, Pietrosanti lives in a £975,000 house in Milton Keynes with his Scottish husband Paul, who he has been with for 12 years, and cockapoo Mia.
Speaking at the Attitude Awards last month while wearing a spangled dinner jacket over a see-through t-shirt, he promised that the rebrand would ‘bring Jaguar back to something truly special.’
‘We’re not just talking about new cars,’ he gushed. ‘We are talking about all new ways of thinking and embracing the full spectrum of human potential and creativity.
‘Because Jaguar has always stood for fearless originality striving to be a copy of nothing. And we believe that every person has the potential to be something unique, something original, and that’s what makes us strong.
‘And at Jaguar we proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community because we know that originality and creativity thrives in spaces where people are free to be themselves.
‘We’re passionate about our people and we’re committed to fostering a diverse inclusive and unified culture that is representative of not only the people who use our products but in a society in which we all live.
Pictured: Santino Pietrosanti who masterminded the ‘woke’ rebranding of the iconic Jaguar car which has sparked furious reaction and ridicule around the world
The Boston University graduate (pictured) has been relentlessly hyping this week’s rebrand on his social media, describing yesterday’s launch of his vision as ‘the day I’ve been waiting for’
Speaking at the Attitude Awards last month, Santino promised that the rebrand would ‘bring Jaguar back to something truly special’
‘A culture where our employees can bring their authentic selves to work. And we are on a transformative journey of our own, driven by a belief in diversity, inclusion, creativity, policy, and most importantly action.
‘We’ve established over 15 DEI groups such as Pride, women in engineering, and neurodiversity matters.
‘We’ve launched major policy revisions such as transitioning at work to drive equity and support for our communities embracing individuality as our superpower.
‘And only two weeks ago we held our second Global annual DEI summit, where we had over 10,000 employees from around the globe attend. And this journey is going to continue for us at Jaguar, and we are going to set the benchmark for our industry.’
Pietrosanti, promoted earlier this year to lead the planned rebrand after seven years with Jaguar, describes his role as ‘delivering and optimising the Jaguar product vision and brand roadmap’.
The executive, whose Facebook profile shows him and his husband posing with Lego cowboys above a Black Lives Matter banner, is believed to have been personally behind the rebranding unveiled yesterday which celebrates diversity rather than motoring.
Pictured: Santino with his Scottish husband Paul who he has been with for 12 years
Jaguars will look something like this in the near future. This is a prototype of its first all-electric car – a four-door saloon currently hidden behind a camouflage paint job
The Jaguar E-Type – a stone-cold design classic (left) – and its spiritual successor the F-Type (right) are now consigned to the past
And the Boston University graduate has been relentlessly hyping this week’s rebrand on his social media, describing yesterday’s launch of his vision as ‘the day I’ve been waiting for’.
But his change has gone down so badly that it’s been criticised by everyone from Elon Musk to The Spectator, which wrote that Jaguar has: ‘decided to torpedo their hard-won reputation in such a perplexingly unforced fashion.’
This reaction may have disappointed Pietrosanti whose own assessment of his work was: ‘It’s bold. It’s fearless. It’s exuberant. It’s everything a Jaguar should be.’
Ominously for long-time Jaguar owners, he also vowed: ‘This is only the start – and it’s going to be incredible.’
The car firm, which is almost 100 years old, unveiled a bold rebrand yesterday which had apparently been worked on by a team of 800 under Pietrosanti.
Jaguar has long been associated with the likes of Inspector Morse (as played by John Thaw, above) – rarely seen without his iconic Mk2
The new Jaguar logo features largely lower case letters – save for a single capitalised ‘G’ – in what the company is calling a ‘complete reset’
The ‘leaper’ cat logo still exists – but has been reversed to jump to the right as a sign the company is ‘always leaping forward’
His most notorious move saw it ditch its classic iconography, including the ‘growler’ badge depicting a roaring big cat.
In an advertisement that featured precisely no cars and a techno music soundtrack, the firm said it would ‘create exuberant’, ‘live vivid’, ‘delete ordinary’ and ‘break moulds’ – but so far all it has done is stoke fury from its traditional audience.
The firm’s managing director has admitted that those likely angered by the rebrand are no longer the target market – as it seeks to attract a new, younger audience with an all-electric range of brand new models.
And with the unveiling of a concept car that is meant to sum up its new approach to car design just two weeks away, it is likely in line for further backlash.
Car fans reacted angrily to a rebrand that they say lacks claws – branding it ‘woke’ and ‘unhinged’.
‘Congratulations,’ weighed in one commenter on Jaguar’s Instagram. ‘You’ve killed a British icon.’
This is the new Jaguar logo – a roundel made up of the letter ‘J’ that looks the same both ways up
Jaguar has unveiled its new ‘brand’ look with a technicolour advertisement that features precisely no cars
The advert features boldly dressed fashion models in bright primary colours alongside slogans such as ‘break moulds’ and ‘create exuberant’
The Jaguar E-Type – a stone-cold design classic (left) – and its spiritual successor the F-Type (right) are now consigned to the past
In return, the firm has responded in kind with replies ranging from the cryptic to downright saccharine, suggesting it simply doesn’t care – as its boss admitted to This is Money the firm expects only 15 per cent of buyers to be existing customers.
With 20 million views of the announcement on X, formerly Twitter, alone, Jaguar PR bosses will be arguing there such no such thing as bad publicity.
‘Hello, thanks for the feedback! We’ll be sure to pass it onto the team. Best wishes,’ the firm said to many of its detractors on social media.
‘Go woke, go broke,’ wrote several people in tweets to the firm. ‘Go hard,’ Jaguar fired back.
Responding to an almost accusatory tweet reading ‘I thought you guys made cars??’, the firm’s social media team simply said: ‘We do. All will be revealed.’
Even Tesla CEO Elon Musk got in on the act, asking the firm: ‘Do you sell cars?’ Jaguar replied warmly, inviting him to the launch event for its new concept car at Miami Art Week.
It said: ‘Yes. We’d love to show you. Join us for a cuppa in Miami on 2nd December?’
Even some of Pietrosanti’s professional peers joined the chorus of criticism.
Joseph Alessio, a designer and art director based in California, blasted the new look, writing: ‘This will be taught in schools as how not to do a rebrand.’
Another designer said: ‘The Jaguar rebrand is going to go down in history as one of the most destructive marketing moves ever attempted.’
The radical look is part of Jaguar’s complete reimagination as it races ahead of the 2030 deadline for car firms to stop selling petrol and diesel cars in the UK.
It has been testing what looks to be a radically different four-door saloon in the UK recently, draped in zebra-style camouflage paint that covers up its mysterious curves and details, down to the shapes of the windows and headlamps.
But this is not the concept that will be unveiled in Miami. Instead, that will be a ‘design vision concept’ that will probably cause as much upset as the rebrand.
The video shows models walking through an alien-esque rocky landscape rendered in pink. What it has to do with cars is not immediately clear.