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  1. Please resist the incorporation of happy faces into corporate logos

    There was a period when WalMart, McDonald’s, and Amazon all rolled out new identity campaigns, all incorporating a happy face or smile as part of them. I’ve seen it in several other smaller companies, too.

    I find it a lot like the statements “WE’RE PLEASED TO SERVE YOU” and “THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING HERE” printed by the register machine on the bottom of receipts. Really, is it possible for the store to care any less? I find it disturbing and depressing, a further disconnect between the promise and the product, and the lack of respect (or even thinking about) companies give their relationship with their customers.

    Except for the greeter at WalMart — whose only job is to do just that — when was the last time you saw a WalMart or McDonald’s employee smile (or Target, or Starbucks)? I go to McDonald’s about once a month, usually when I need a familiar-french fry or Diet Coke fix or to check out the latest Happy Meal toys, and currently in NYC there’s a campaign to get their employees to smile more: signs behind the order taker at the front counter say, “SMILES ARE FREE – Free Small Fries If I Fail To Give You A Smile Before Taking Your Money”. I still have yet to get a smile in my last half-dozen visits, although I have never pointed it out to get my free fries, since you know a “manager” would be called over for the dedemption, and fearing the order taker is already depressed and hostile enough.

    Amazon does get extra points for their logo, since it also looks like an arrow, pointing right, in the direction we read (invoking action and progress), as well as underscores the ‘a’ and ‘z’ in their name, a visual pun on “everything from a to z”. Although some may think their smile logo looks more like a smirk, as in “You can kiss your local bookstores and record shops goodbye, sucker!”

    McDonald’s has tossed aside their “We Love to See You Smile” campaign in favor of another one, even more vacuous and warm-huggy-feeling and less to do about the product or dining experience than ever. I guess it beats “Please Don’t Sue Us ‘Cause Our Food Makes You Fat,” though.

    And speaking of blithe cheerfulness as the world goes to hell in a handbasket…

  2. Re: Please resist the incorporation of happy faces into corporate logos

    As I look at the discarded box, the logo grin by itself also suggests a boomerang or bird or jet in flight perhaps evoking the speed of delivery, while the arrow head is also suggestive of an open book.
    When combined with the company name i does the a-to-z thing you mentioned, which I never saw before, but also underlines amaz as in amazing.

    As for SpongeBob, we might ask why are the most successful cartoon characters these days yellow?

  3. BAD logos!

    A boomerang for returning orders you’re disappointed with?

    And what speed, unless you pay a hefty premium?

    Maybe it’s also a gaping wound?

    As far as dubious new logos go, I am always confused by this one of the new budget airline, Song:

    To me it always looks like a whip, but also the trajectory of a released balloon or a out-of-control plane, or even a fissioned atom coming at you — or perhaps representing that the only possible route between two points in the longest one — which might be an appropriate logo for modern air travel after all.

  4. Re: Please resist the incorporation of happy faces into corporate logos

    As I look at the discarded box, the logo grin by itself also suggests a boomerang or bird or jet in flight perhaps evoking the speed of delivery, while the arrow head is also suggestive of an open book.
    When combined with the company name i does the a-to-z thing you mentioned, which I never saw before, but also underlines amaz as in amazing.

    As for SpongeBob, we might ask why are the most successful cartoon characters these days yellow?

  5. Re: BAD logos!

    I do believe it is a whip. Or: definitely phallic.

    From NY Daily News:
    The airline’s activities will mostly be publicity-seeking parties and events, and its logo will appear on Meatpacking District maps distributed at area hotels and travel agencies.

    “People fly JetBlue because their fares are low, their seats are big and you can watch TV,” said Joe Brancatelli, who runs the business travel Web site joesentme.com. “Song is trying to manufacture hip.”

    Big seats for big men?
    Meatpacking district cachet
    Where hip rhymes with whip

  6. Re: Just to show I can I can do it, too…

    I disagree.

    I think along with a little sunshine, we need more smiley faces in our lives.

    Just not on license plates.

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