The Biggest Logo Disasters & Branding Blunders

A couple of weeks ago, we told you about The Gap logo fiasco. Or rather, we probably reminded you of it, as it was all over the news and pretty hard to miss when it happened.

But The Gap isn’t the only company that has blundered when messing with their logo. Here are a couple more of the biggest logo disasters of the decade and other branding blunders.

The Worst Logo Redesign Mistakes Ever

SyFi. Three years ago, the Sci-Fi Channel announced they were changing their name to SyFy, a name that many people, including at least one of the channel’s founders, think is “just plain dumb.” Fans called the new logo clunky and were quick to point out similarities to nicknames for a particular sexually transmitted disease. But ratings were up in the months following the change, and the name is admittedly memorable, so the channel has kept the name.
A lesson for small business owners: before changing the name of your business, make sure your customers don’t have an attachment to the old name. And it’s a pretty good idea to avoid names used to describe STDs.
Pepsi Co. It happens about once a decade. A marketing guru at Pepsi decides it’s time for a new logo. And four years ago, Pepsi spent a million dollars to tweak the white line in their logo into a smile. Only it’s not a smile. It’s… well, we’re not sure. (And if you don’t like the logo, just wait until you read the branding document that led to it). Not to worry, we only have to wait another six or so years, before we go through this silly exercise again.
The lesson for small business owners: Don’t fix what’s not broken. And most importantly, don’t spend a million dollars to do it.
Animal Planet. The last example, again from 2008. Animal Planet unveiled a new logo dumping the old, readable, elephant and earth with their name, for this. It’s been almost four years and I still can’t figure out why that M is on its side. The “new” logo is hard to read, and is really big (even when it’s small). The new logo was supposed to signal more adult-oriented programming, but we’re not sure how. Designers hate the stretched and compressed letters.
The lesson for small business owners: Make sure your logo makes sense to your audience. It should be easily readable and communicate a message about your business.