The London 2012 Olympic Logo has hit the headlines again. Iran have complained that the logo spells out Zion - a biblical term widely recognised to refer to the city of Jerusalem. It has not gone down well in the Muslim world and is now seen as a racist logo.
They are now threatening to boycott the games - why though are they complaining almost 4 years after the logo was released I ask? They may have had more gravitas back in 2008 when the first bout of reviews/complaints/moans about the design were very current. Did no one spot this then?
Faux Pas - yes they happen in the marketing and design world - but should they happen? The one that springs to mind is the Pepsi Cola slogan 'Come alive with the Pepsi Cola generation,' when translated literally into Taiwanese it means, 'Pepsi Cola will bring your ancestors back from the dead.'
Moral of the story.... testing, testing and more testing.....
Interesting one. I was in London last week and saw the first 48 sheets promoting the availability of tickets for the event. They use the rather bizarre and angular font (see London above) and as a result are really very uncomfortable to read.
ReplyDeleteha ha re the pepsi ad, what a claim! I love dodgy cross market translations in advertising.
ReplyDeleteI have always hated the olympic logo anyway, and don't get me started on the mascots.
2 points:
ReplyDeleteWhen Wolff Olins designed this £22 million piece of poop in 2007, they counter attacked all the criticism by stating that they had specifically designed the logo to be contemporary in 2012 (to be ahead of the game). They had deployed research companies to help them do this. Funny isn't it, it looks even more old fashioned in 2011 then it did then!
Secondly, love the Taiwanese line. I'd drink a can of coke, or a 100 if I could meet my granny again!!