As our campus dives into the entire rebranding effort that goes along with a big name change, I found myself nodding in agreement many times while reading this Bloghound post about the misplaced obsession with logos and tag lines. The Bloghound, aka Lois Kelly, discusses the botched London 2012 Olympics logo project as her starting point to launch into a nice anti-logo rant.
What does the logo for the 2012 London Olympics, pictured above, say to you? It says nothing to me, except that I think the Olympic Games paid too much for not much at all. Yet the Olympic Games went a step further and paid to produce a video to explain the logo. Promote a logo? Good grief, what a waste of money. But to top off the ridiculousness, the video showing an the animated logo has been found to cause epileptic seizures. (And not just among the people who authorized the branding firm .)
Just as bad as logomania is the obsession with taglines. “[I]n tag line la la land we have all the car companies using just about the same tag lines, and also making a big deal about announcing a new tag line.”
Mercedes-Benz use to have the tag line, “Engineered Like No Other Car in the World.” which as tag lines go is pretty descriptive and clear. But it dropped that lined for the bland “Unlike Any Other” because the car company said the brand was about more than engineering.
In the past month Audi has introduced a new tag line, “Truth in Engineering,” as has Chrysler with its “Engineered Beautifully.”
Mmmm…seems like all the auto brands are starting to sound the same. Will these tag lines, which probably cost of hundreds of thousands once you add up the market research, copy writing and testing fees, make a dent on the brands revenues?
While a strong, distinctive visual identity is important, it seems that too much money and executive time is spent on logos and tag lines in relation to their value.
Colleges and universities seem just as obsessed with taglines and logos as the corporate world. We recently completed a round of interviews with several marketing/branding firms and found that many seemed to share this obsession. Or maybe they’re just catering to the obsessions of their prospective clients.
Back in the day, “the top picks were representatives of the big three broadcast television networks.” These days, however, “only a slim majority can name the journalist they admire most and the preferences are far more scattered. Reflecting the myriad choices news consumers have today, the top 10 journalists named by the public are drawn from the networks, cable news channels, public television and even Comedy Central.”