Brand Putsch!

By Ryan Skinner (email)

In any branding there is the whiff of totalitarianism. Brand managers don't resemble little Robespierres and Trotskys for nothing. Out with the old! In with the new! Stick to the party line! We will march into a glorious future together! They roar from the balconies.

But can it go too far? Isn't it dangerous for a company to sever all ties with its past, even if that past is associated with something lost, defeated, bankrupt or inert?

I recently saw a photograph in which, I know, the publisher had retouched the image to put new company logos all over the place. Not only that, the new logos were slathered on with the digital equivalent of a layer of chalky paste. And they covered what I knew to be not just the company's previous logo, but the logo of a company purchased by the company with the previous logo. We're talking ancient history in corporate-speak here. Over a year ago! Maybe two!

A further twist. The revisionism took place on the helmets of five employees, pictured together in the company's in-house magazine. I had interviewed them. I knew their names. Ate lunch with them. Discussed their work. It wasn't a bris or something. Just work. Yet I felt that I knew them enough to know that - upon seeing the digital makeover of their helmets - they'd be upset.

Why? Well, the old logo was one they wore with pride. Obviously, they were no longer supplied with helmets or boiler suits with the old logo, and there was surely no shortage of the new. These recidivist effects were carefully, even painstakingly, maintained, with equal parts pride in their workplace and stubbornness.

And then a designer, with the stroke of a digital pen, struck the old logo away and pasted the new one over. History will not be the same. Even if these workers will not join the new era in the physicalness of their uniforms and very beings, they will be placed in the new era; their iconic selves will wear the new insignia.

Is it wrong? In this case, I would say yes. I have the benefit of time, awareness and reflection. The luxury to consider the merits of this specific case. A designer would never have the time. He or she would never have met the people involved.

So what to do now? Nothing. Just to observe. Or what do you think?