Dependable Erection

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Marketing disasters

Every once in a while, there are hilarious, if unintended consequences of marketing decisions that appear to have been less than fully thought through. The comments over at Kevin's place following the recent opening of Pop's Backdoor is the kind of thing i'm thinking about.

Serendipitously, a reader pointed me to this article in the London Telegraph, regarding the recent efforts by the Office of Government Commerce to update their logo. Here's what they came up with:

Pretty standard stuff, really. The Brits love them some acronyms, so using the initials of the office was a natural. Like most logos, i'm certain the designer submitted half a dozen different treatments in different typefaces, and the versions got kicked around in committee and vetted by mucky-mucks throughout the department before the money was actually spent to put the logo on whatever materials needed to carry it. The process typically takes months from beginning to end.

Interestingly, it only took about thirty seconds for low level staffers, who hadn't been involved in process at all, to discover that the logo had some, er, unintended consequences.

Fortunately, a spokesperson for the department rose to the occasion, declaring "it is not inappropriate to an organisation that’s looking to have a firm grip on Government spend."

Closer to home, I did some paddling on the Haw River yesterday. Can anyone tell me what the hell the folks in Alamance County were smoking when they named this road?

Labels: ,


Continue reading Marketing disasters