Xerox and the Ubiquitous Web 2.0 Logo

Well, it was inevitable.
It was exactly two years ago that Kodak announced changes to it's logo at the CES show.


I'm sure the marketing executives will give you plenty of new speak about "restructuring", and "minimizing footprints", and "synergizing backward overflow", but the fact remains, this is what has come of the old photo-repro business:




Yesterday Xerox announced it's new logo, complete with the shiny reflection and transparency of a freshly licked lollipop. This is, after all, a brave new web 2.0 world, where everything is shiny and glossy, and pushed to your blackberry, or trio (yes and your iPhone, Richy Rich).



The Times has an article about the history of the Xerox Logo.

Is your marketing department feeling a foreboding sense that it's getting harder to keep up with the kids these days?

Does your company look in it's proverbial mirror and count the liver spots?

What you need is a web 2.0 upgrade!

A little glossy logo always helps to stave off the infection of creeping irrelevance.

And it is easier to manage than you might think!

Here is a tutorial, complete with a downloadable plugin, which allows you to "lick" your logo into the 21st century.

Here are some funny mash-ups of old-century logos given a new-century treatment. Designers originally submitted these to the YayHooray forums, and they were salvaged before the website was shut down.


The old Philip Morris Logo


The new and improved Philip Morris logo.

Some others:






Again, these are not real, no calls please.

Building a brand is an arduous and long-term process, and redesigning an identity is usually seen as a last ditch effort on the part of an aging corporation to cling to the walls of Fortune's top (insert number here). Just ask any Detroit automobile manufacturer.

Who knows, maybe these print companies, like the music industry, aren't simply "glossing over" their dismal situation, (ehem) and maybe they are just that genuinely optimistic about their futures.

I for one still like the old Haloid logo

Co-opted Yuletide

Is nothing sacred?

It's widely known that the holiday advertising blitzkrieg started early this year. We put our DVR on alert to eliminate any commercials that have glitter, bells, holly, turtle-necks, or Kay jewelry. I'm wondering if I need to reinforce the mailbox to support the incoming onslaught of un-recyclable glossy catalogs.

I suppose in the American Holiday season, there are not enough secular icons of celebration. In order to "sell the spirit" to all mankind, without isolating anyones beliefs, advertisers have to dig deep.*

There are a few things that I think should be off limits to those "Fat Cats of Madison Avenue" this holiday season.

1. You are not allowed to bastardize any portion of A Christmas Story.
(I'm looking in your general direction AT&T, formerly Cingular)
I don't care if you are selling Italian leg lamps with fishnet stockings, or pink fuzzy-bunny one-piece jam-jams. This John Shepherd tale is off-limits to any crass commercialism.**

2. Nothing that even looks remotely similar to a Rankin/Bass animation can be used.
(This means you, annoying Aflac duck)
Not only is this a travesty, but it's just too easy. Did you phone that one in?

A few items, however, have exceeded the Statute of Limitations for advertising appropriations:

1. A Christmas Carol
Have your sinister way with this dusty old rag. Just be warned, she's been around the block a few times.

2. It's A Wonderful Life
Although I am a big fan of Frank Capra's work, it reached market saturation in the mid-eighties. That was about the same time Ted Turner airbrushed it like a little girl smearing lipstick on her dolls, so unfortunately it's too far gone to save. (That's not to say that I would ever miss the George Bailey 5k this year.)

*After all, the only images they have is a type-2 diabetic in a red suit, butchered pine trees being used as fire-traps, smelly socks filled with half-melted candies, sub-orbit, antlered, freight-hauling caribou (I hear one even has nasal rosacea), candles, wreaths... anyway-what I'm saying is that they really are at a loss for secular icons. Give them a break.
**By the way, the house where this was filmed in Cleveland is now a museum.