It's just a pair of arrows. What could be more innocent than that? Our journey across 12 festive fu-, um, screwups in our 12 Borks of Christmas (12BoC) series* nears its end as a Register reader regales us with an unfortunate choice of logo and a predictable Big Blue reaction. Today's story comes from a reader Regomised as "Naim." No, we don't know either - we suspect the Regomiser might be …
Worked on a product which, after *lots* of thought from the marketing department, was named 'Pro-Clarity'. All the devs immediately googled the name, to find out that IBM had a product of *exactly* the same name! Irony was that the company was bought by Big Blue about a year later. Not sure if they renamed it because I left soon after the takeover.
A company I worked for not too long ago did the classic "we paid for it so we're going to use it" thing regarding the new company logo they'd been sold by the usual kind of suspect. It was just the name in an ellipse with a swooshing red line on the edge.
The CEO was apparently blind to the fact that such logos can be seen in the suburban US gracing many "mom and pop" establishments, including dry cleaners and petrol stations. The company probably shelled out a six figure sum to be counted in such distinguished company.
The oil company BP wanted to establish service stations in the USA. They employed a PR company who advised that scientific studies had shown red and blue were the most noticeable logo colours - and they should change their existing one to that scheme.
The BP people were taken for a drive to show them the effect. They stayed with their yellow and green logo which stood out nicely.against the sea of red and blue on the road sides.
Perhaps the unRegomised name was Julian (Naim - Wikipedia).
I had a NAP250 for >20 years, until I had to sell it because of illness, damn I still miss it.
I remember reading, from cover to cover, the controversial book about this issue.
My impression is that, while the author felt strongly about the matter, and presented his case as a damning indictment of IBM, he also stayed true to the facts...
and the facts he cited gave a picture of a company which, within the limits faced by a private company, did an exemplary job of doing everything it could to prevent misuse of its products, services, and technology by the Nazis.
For me, the striking similarity to the recycle logo would be more of a concern.
The one "flash" does not raise any significant unfortunate association with me - and I'm a German in my fifties, definitely not taking history lightly. A double "flash" would be an immediate no-go here, of course.
All in the beholder's mind's eye. Like the David Frost TV satirical skit where he was interviewing a "clean up TV" activist of the Mary Whitehouse era. The interviewee claims to be able to denounce a programme just by seeing its title. His "filthiest" rated programme - and it is aimed at children? "Blue Peter".
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