back to article What happens when cancel culture meets Adolf Hitler pareidolia? Amazon decides it needs a new app icon

Adolf Hitler killed himself in 1945 after being responsible for the death of millions as the leader of Germany's Nazi party. He had a small rectangular mustache. Seventy-five years later, e-commerce giant Amazon has had to change its mobile app's new logo that featured its trademark smile and a jagged blue ribbon on top a …

  1. Winkypop Silver badge
    Joke

    Do they still deliver to Poland?

    Just asking...

    1. sreynolds

      Re: Do they still deliver to Poland?

      Yes, in arrmour and in battle formation. No need to use that super expensive motorway system build by the Polish dictator used to enrichen himself.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do they still deliver to Poland?

      you jest, but a couple of days ago they launched their amazon.pl site...

      p.s. they DO deliver to Poland, because they already deliver FROM Poland ;)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Do they still deliver to Poland?

      The fact that someone felt they needed to change the icon to the Hitler then non-Hitler ones just underscores that Department is over staffed with folks with too much time on their hands. Where was the value add in any of it?

  2. Raphael

    Adolf Hitler killed himself in 1945 having been responsible for the death of millions as the leader of Germany's Nazi party. He had a small rectangular mustache.

    What a bizarre way to start the article. you make it sound like the reason he killed himself was because he was "responsible for the death of millions". I think the reason he killed himself is he was petrified at what the Russians would do to him if caught alive.

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      'you make it sound like...'

      I dreaded someone would be this tedious. Everyone, bar weapons-grade numbskulls, knows the history. He killed millions of people. Then he killed himself.

      C.

      1. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
        Big Brother

        Re: 'you make it sound like...'

        Didn't he relocate to Argentina after the war? ODESSA and all that? Sometimes it's necessary to admit defeat and cash in your chips; go start a new life somewhere else where there aren't so many people with ropes who would like to have a talk with you.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 'you make it sound like...'

          Shaving off his moustache was all that was required to avoid being noticed at customs.

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: 'you make it sound like...'

            Or he could have popped on a bowler hat and a pair of oversized trousers and walked through customs swinging a cane...

            1. Dave559 Silver badge

              Re: 'you make it sound like...'

              "Or he could have popped on a bowler hat and a pair of oversized trousers and walked through customs swinging a cane..."

              You surely wouldn't be much of a Great Dictator if you did that… ;-)

              (A film I really must get around to watching…)

              1. TRT Silver badge

                Re: 'you make it sound like...'

                Really is worth it. It’s subtle on many levels and not so subtle on many more.

          2. Tromos
            Joke

            Re: Shaving off his moustache was all that was required to avoid being noticed at customs.

            Why would he do that when all that was necessary was to fold over a small triangle of it on one side?

          3. TeeCee Gold badge
            Coat

            Re: 'you make it sound like...'

            I heard he waxed the ends of it and used a forged Belgian passport.

        2. John70

          Re: 'you make it sound like...'

          I saw in a "documentary" on Amazon Prime, Iron Sky - The Coming Race, that he is one of the lizard people living in the Hollow Earth.

      2. Sgt_Oddball
        Trollface

        Re: 'you make it sound like...'

        I read on the Internet that after building a moonbase he went to live out his days there.

        There's even a film and its mentioned in a few games so it must be true.

        Huh....whats that? Frog pills again? But I just had them next Wednesday.... Oh alright Napoleon, you always did make a firm point...

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: 'you make it sound like...'

          now COME ON that is totally unbelievable EVERYONE knows man has never landed on the moon, you're just making yourself sound like some conspiracy theory nut job!

          1. Stumpy

            Re: 'you make it sound like...'

            They did land on the moon. It's just that Hitler and his Space Nazis took them prisoner so we never get to hear anything more from them...

          2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
            Black Helicopters

            Re: 'you make it sound like...'

            So, you think the Moon is real? Interesting...

            1. sbt
              Boffin

              Re: 'So, you think the Moon is real?'

              Of course! Where do you think cheese comes from? Next thing you'll be saying it's the fermented mammary secretions from monochrome beasts that eat grass.

          3. MrBanana

            Re: 'you make it sound like...'

            Yup, it wasn't real. As everyone knows, in 1968, after seeing the visual effects in 2001: A Space Odyssey, NASA hired Stanley Kubrick to fake the Moon landings. But, being a perfectionist, he insisted on shooting everything on location.

        2. MrBanana

          The Sunday Sport - top reporting

          I believe he was joined on the Moon by Elvis, and they lived together in a double decker bus. Or was it Lord Lucan riding Shergar?

          1. N2

            Re: The Sunday Sport - top reporting

            No, it was a Lancaster bomber found on the moon, honest!

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 'you make it sound like...'

        ObXKCD

        He was in a bunker.

        Damn, 1945 was noisy!

        1. sbt
          Coat

          Re: 'He was in a bunker.'

          So killed by lightning, playing golf. Got it. It's tricky when all these alternative timelines keep bleeding into the historical record. Just have to remember we're in the worst one.

      4. david 12 Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: 'you make it sound like...'

        On an article about pareidolia, pleas tell me that was a joke that flew far over the head of the readership? You should have used the icon.

    2. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Facepalm

      I think the reason he killed himself is he was petrified at what the Russians would do to him if caught alive.

      Which, of course, had nothing to do with the death of millions of Russians.

      If the Americans had reached the middle of Berlin first, he would have been frightened of them too. Remind me again why they were after him? Was it something to do with people dying? In their millions?

      As a result of the German Reich? Led by Hitler?

      Words fail me.

  3. redpawn

    That's not Hitler

    It's Walter Cronkite, as long as you substitute white for blue and use wider tape, though I don't remember Hitler having a blue mustache. It could be all those B&W photographs had me fooled.

    1. MyffyW Silver badge

      Radio Londres

      ..as anyone who has watched The Longest Day will tell you, "Jean has a long moustache.."

    2. Muscleguy

      Re: That's not Hitler

      I’ve never seen any suggestion he was non-binary so why would he have a blue ‘tache?

  4. sbt
    Coat

    Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

    ... that would have been the first thought.

    That being said, blue box tape looks about as much like a toothbrush moustache as a dead rat resembles a tampon.

    1. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

      Re: Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

      That revised logo with the folded tape looks a bit like the way Hitler wore his hair diagonally across his forehead.

      I guess sometimes you just can't win.

      1. sbt
        Devil

        I guess sometimes you just can't win.

        Not against the outrage industry; they'll always find something to stay relevant.

        They've really obtained an elevated altitude vs. the oceanic cartilaginous predator with this one, though.

        1. Teiwaz

          Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

          While not entirely in disagreement with your sentiment.

          Corporations generally pay a lot for logo designs, in the hope that it gives a positive message and not a negative one.

          A logo that looks, however vaguely like a possible Hitler emoji would very definitely fall in the latter category.

          I'm not surprised they quickly changed it. Clearly they didn't check how it would be perceived by the public.

          1. sbt
            Devil

            re: "a positive message"

            Like rejecting absurdity? I'd agree with you if it was in the 'vaguely' ballpark. Bit of a stretch, though. In fact, I haven't seen a stretch like that since Mr. Creosote tried that wafer-thin mint.

            1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

              Re: re: "a positive message"

              While it doesn't look to me much like Hitler (the tache is too far above the "smile"), I can see why it might be construed as such. And, in a commercially sensitive environment such as the one Amazon operates in, you can easily weigh up the costs of the change (miniscule) versus the potential damage to the image of trying to sit it out.

              This kind of sensibility is older than Twitter. Don't forget that, in America, many buildings don't a have a thirteenth floor because enough people are superstitious so that it makes business sense to pander to them… Palm never released the Palm IV because of Asian sensibilities. But Fiat pushed ahead with the Punto and London 2012 doggedly stuck with Bart / Lisa logo.

          2. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

            Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

            "Clearly they didn't check how it would be perceived by the public."

            I doubt this is the general public.

            This is the work of dedicated offence takers. Their ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. If only it could be directed to productive ends.

            1. Roland6 Silver badge

              Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

              >This is the work of dedicated offence takers.

              Definitely. And delusional: can't think of a single Hilter picture that in any way resembles the Amazon logo. To my knowledge Hitler never had a saw tooth moustache, it was always straight cut along the bottom edge - neither did he have a big smile.

              It would be interesting to see a demographic of those who saw this meaning in the logo, as I suspect you need to be a big fan of Hitler to see a Hitler symbolism in this. (Just as you need to be a big fan of a particular christ, virgin mary icon/image to see 'christ' or the 'virgin mother' in odd object arrangements.)

              1. Bbuckley

                Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                Extinction rebellion

            2. gnasher729 Silver badge

              Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

              "This is the work of dedicated offence takers. Their ingenuity never ceases to amaze me. If only it could be directed to productive ends."

              I would totally contradict that. I might not have noticed, but once I heard someone write "looks like Hitler", it looked an awful lot like Hitler to me. And I would have told Amazon to get rid, not because I'm offended, but because it makes them look very stupid.

              1. Claptrap314 Silver badge

                Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                The mind is weird like that. We are super good (actually, too good) at pattern matching. And once an association has been made, if there is a significant emotional aspect to it, it can be almost impossible to break. I can see 88 and 1312 being banned from math text books for the same reason.

                Still, given the built-in smile, I would have been sorely tempted to run a add campaign associating Charlie Chaplain to the icon instead--we need to reclaim the 'stache!

                1. Paul Hovnanian Silver badge

                  Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                  "I can see 88 ... being banned"

                  Nooooo! Not my piano!

                  1. Anonymous Coward
                    Happy

                    Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                    > Nooooo! Not my piano!

                    Fun fact: International Piano Day is celebrated on the 88th day of the year, which is 29th March this year.

                    https://www.pianoday.org

              2. Bbuckley

                Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                No mate it's not Amazon who looks stupid.

          3. heyrick Silver badge

            Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

            "Corporations generally pay a lot for logo designs"

            I hope an intern did that as work experience...because it's shit.

            1. TRT Silver badge

              Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

              It is a truly awful logo. Is is some kind of a joke?

              Mind you... if they'd asked me I would have submitted one identical to their previous one but at a slightly inflated price. I mean... if they liked the one they had bought before, surely they'd like the same again?

              1. Anonymous Coward
                Anonymous Coward

                Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

                Personally, I'd just have changed the saw-tooth to a curved scalloping pattern.

          4. LogicGate Silver badge

            Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

            "Clearly they didn't check how it would be perceived by the public."

            I think that the answer is somewhat simpler:

            A logo was designed.

            Nobody percieved anything negative about it.

            Logo was released.

            Somebody found a funny but unflattering inerpretation of logo.

            Interpretation went viral because once you know what to look for, you see it (London olympics logo anyone?).

            Amazon now had 2 choises:

            1: Live with it

            2: Tweak it so that viral interpretation no longer fits.

            London olympics chose #1, Amazon chose #2.

            No cancel culture, no ill meaning, you just cannot win them all.

            1. gnasher729 Silver badge

              Re: I guess sometimes you just can't win.

              The problem is that once you’re told it looks like Hitler, suddenly it does.

    2. genghis_uk

      Re: Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

      Oliver Hardy was known to smile occasionally ;)

      That's another fine mess Amazon got themselves into (and out of apparently)

    3. macjules

      Re: Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

      There exist objections to when an app is 15% loaded from the App Store, that it resembles Hitler's moustache with haircut.

      1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

        Re: Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

        That looks much more like Hitler than this app logo

      2. Claptrap314 Silver badge

        Re: Godwin's Logo, or, If only Chaplin had smiled more often ...

        Look, I already have a hobby which is addictive enough. Just. Stop.

    4. Dave559 Silver badge

      blue box tape

      "That being said, blue box tape looks about as much like a toothbrush moustache as a dead rat resembles a tampon."

      Oh, sticky tape, is that what it is supposed to be? (And I kind of assumed that people were seeing it as the hairline (although that was more sort of sloped than straight across) but also inferring the (not visible) moustache from the jagged edge.)

      I honestly wouldn't have worked that out if you hadn't mentioned it. Insufficiently skeuomorphic. Admittedly, the article describing it as "ribbon" was a further confusion and sidetrack, but it's also too broad and not overhanging the side quite enough to register as "sticky tape" for me. Also, sticky tape is usually clear(ish), or perhaps best represented by a different shade of beige or brown. Is blue tape actually a thing somewhere?

      1. sbt
        Thumb Up

        Is blue tape actually a thing somewhere?

        Yup. Amazon use blue packing tape on their boxes (where tape is needed - some small boxes are self-sealing). It usually has logos and promotional guff on it, so it's an Amazon branded thing. I guess it makes their brown cardboard boxes stand out a little more.

        For me, as the ragged end of a piece of packing tape over the top folds of the box and running down the side, I can't see it as anything else, particularly an exemplar of Hitlerian hirsutism.

        1. ChrisC Silver badge

          Re: Is blue tape actually a thing somewhere?

          Either my colourblindness has got much worse recently, or the use of blue tape isn't consistent across the Amazon empire - all the packages I get here that need assistance in staying closed are held together with what looks like very dark brown/black tape, so the only thing about this logo that says Amazon to me is the smiley swoosh.

  5. cornetman Silver badge

    For a real logo "fail", look no further than:

    https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/b-c-ferries-mask-image-will-be-replaced-after-everyone-has-their-laugh

    Although I have to applaud the reaction of BC Ferries to the media frenzy:

    “If it draws their attention to the seriousness of wearing a mask and the need to wear a mask, I’m OK with that.”

    1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

        I see that article. I see the "when viewed on its side". And... I don't see it.

        Which gets back to the word of the moment "pareidolia". You see what you see because of _you_. Sometimes that's more revealing?

        1. Neil Barnes Silver badge

          Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

          So tell me, Mr Rorsach, what does this ink blot look like to you?

          1. Kane

            Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

            "So tell me, Mr Rorsach, what does this ink blot look like to you?"

            Dog carcass in alley this morning. Tire tread on burst stomach. This city's afraid of me. I've seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters, and the gutters are full of blood, and when the drains finally scab over all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"

            And I'll whisper "No."

            1. MisterHappy

              Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

              "Some pretty butterflies"

              1. Kane

                Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

                Human Bean Juice

          2. stiine Silver badge

            Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

            re: rorsach

            I'm always reminded of Steve Buscemi's character taking the Rorsach test.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z90OXPhTvJQ

            And he was right!

          3. Gene Cash Silver badge

            Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

            That white sheet of paper?

            Two polar bears fucking in a blizzard... next?

            What do you mean I lost my space flight?

        2. sbt
          Coat

          Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

          That's no pear. Apparently, it's an aubergine.

        3. Muscleguy

          Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

          Way back on usenet we had a guy with a huge case of pareidolia. He saw numbers and letters in rocks claiming they were all messages from aliens. He would post these pictures trying to convince us and we simply could not see it.

          Then he started posting pictures of standing stones etc here in Scotland. He was going on about a number by the yellow and I thought ‘yellow? on Scottish Granite?’ and I realised, no stone, not even concrete which has been in the weather fails to host algae, lichens and mosses. He was reading the biology.

          Most rocks exposed to daylight have algae on them, often a black variety and often under the quartz grains where the light gets concentrated. I realised this as a child in NZ, there’s this long high hill behind Dunedin and at the top is a rounded outcrop of weathered rocks. You can go underneath them on the downhill side and I noticed the rock in the shade was a different colour from the rock which saw direct sunlight.

          It’s why geologists carry hammers, to crack the rocks to see an unaltered aspect. Even rocks in dry deserts have weathered, biology covered surfaces.

        4. This post has been deleted by its author

        5. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

          Re: And this is where it goes ... pear shaped?

          Is that directed at me or the author of the article?

      2. MJI Silver badge

        Re: OGC - AHEM

        Use this source

        https://www.theregister.com/2008/04/22/ogc_logo/

        1. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge

          Re: OGC - AHEM

          Ahh, that must be the reason for the downvotes

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: OGC

        Here's a good collection of them.

        Incidentally, the Junior Dance Classes one about half way down - there is no way that one is an accident.

    2. Fred Dibnah
      Paris Hilton

      Then there's Lisa Simpson from 2012:

      https://kottke.org/12/07/the-naughty-2012-olympics-logo

  6. David 132 Silver badge
    Facepalm

    It looks uncannily like Hitler, no, really

    This offensive app icon perfectly captures Hitler's whimsical, playful smile and brown skin, even if the hair tone is a little les blue than it was in reality. It's uncanny. How on earth did Amazon think that they could slip this one past us. They honestly couldn't have done a more convincing representation of him in any way. Thank goodness for the perpetually vigilant Twitterati for alerting us to yet another thing all Right^H^H^H^H^HCorrect-Thinking People should be offended by.

    (Icon. Just in case this flies over anyone's head --->)

  7. logicalextreme

    But…

    What's the source on the change being anything to do with Hitler, if nobody had "yet" complained?

    1. Citizen of Nowhere

      Re: But…

      Amazon's PR department.

  8. Sceptic Tank Silver badge
    Childcatcher

    I see Bart Simpson. The new logo looks like a paper jam sticking out of a printer.

    1. seven of five
      Joke

      Bart Hitler causes paper jams at Amazon?

      1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

        No, Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan cause jams at SpaceX.

        1. David 132 Silver badge

          And Penfold causes jams at HQ when he’s nervous. “Cripes, DM!”

  9. Khaptain Silver badge

    Cancel Culture Feedback

    This is why the cancel Culture is so damned dangerous, when they are cancelling something you don't like then it's fine but when it touches you directly it's a whole other story.

    Amazon have the power and the money to escape from this, this time. But now the guns are pointing at them and eventually someone will find a silly little thing like this again and it will be all guns blazing against them, with absolutely no recourse possible... Its a terrible thing, fuelled by the social media platforms themselves.

    Some people are now just starting to realise how fragile all of us are with this stupid craze. Its obvious that the snake will eventually bite it's own tail but the damage in the meantime will be colossal.

    It's a craze perpetuated by bored keyboard warriors that prefer destruction to construction. They don't really care who falls, all that it is important is that their target falls, and then they can give themselves a pat on the back with the righteous stick. It's very ephemeral, childish and will establish a very unstable base for these future adults upon which to build their lives.

    1. 45RPM Silver badge

      Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

      I remain to be convinced that cancel culture is actually anything more that another deranged conspiracy theory. Sure, a few statues have been toppled (but usually because the person commemorated was a dodgy geezer, and since said dodgy geezer is dead anyway I shouldn’t think that they’re in a position to take much offence). Other than that though, how has cancel culture affected you, personally?

      Seriously, give me the evidence on this - so far all I’ve heard so support cancel culture is hearsay, statue takedowns and… well… not a lot else. The extremes of politics are still spewing vitriol (so, despite having claimed to have been cancelled, they very clearly haven’t been), trolls are still trolling. As far as I can see, absolutely nothing has been cancelled.

      1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

        Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

        Dr seuss was cancelled yesterday!

        completely , totally and by loony commie lefties , the kbd warriors will have you believe.

        in reality a couple of books were withdrawn because of a picture of a chinaman with slitty eyes

        1. 45RPM Silver badge

          Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

          Or could it be that the books weren’t selling, and this is a convenient way to get some free publicity for other works by Dr. Seuss? If you think of Dr. Seuss, you think of The Lorax, The Cat in the Hat, The Fox in Socks, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. You know, the books that people actually buy. None of those popular books have been ‘cancelled’. The books which have been withdrawn are:

          If I Ran the Zoo

          And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street

          Scrambled Eggs Super

          McElligot's Pool

          On Beyond Zebra!

          The Cat's Quizzer

          And honestly, I hadn’t previously heard of any of them. This isn’t cancel culture - this is throwing out the rubbish, to make space for the books which people actually buy and read.

          1. Khaptain Silver badge

            Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

            This came straight from the Washington Times ( I don't know if it's a partisan paper or not)

            https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/26/loudoun-county-schools-cancel-dr-seuss-racial-unde/

            "Last year, Burbank Unified School District in California banned five classic novels from being taught in their curriculum: Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men,” Theodore Taylor’s “The Cay” and Mildred D. Taylor’s Newbery Medal-winning young-adult classic “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry.”"

            Do you also consider the above books as "rubbish" or "bad sellers" that need to be thrown out in order to make space ?

            1. 45RPM Silver badge

              Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

              No - I consider it just the usual nonsense that happens all the time in schools, and which has happened ever since I was a small boy. It’s not a left or right thing either - both sides like to muck around. Consider, for example, school districts which demand that evolution or sex education isn’t taught, or that Harry Potter is prohibited. People don’t shout about cancel-culture in these cases - sure they get riled, and that’s fine. But there’s no point in calling it what it isn’t.

              As for why those books aren’t taught (and ‘aren’t being taught’ is very different from ‘have been banned’ - I don’t know what the truth of it is), could it be that there are newer, and perhaps more relevant books to teach instead? These books, it must be noted, are still being sold, they’re still in libraries, they haven’t been cancelled in any way.

            2. TimMaher Silver badge
              Devil

              Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

              I wonder if they are aware of “The Devils of Loudon”?

            3. Dave559 Silver badge

              Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

              "This came straight from the Washington Times ( I don't know if it's a partisan paper or not)

              https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/feb/26/loudoun-county-schools-cancel-dr-seuss-racial-unde/ "

              Well, from the above article: the paper's banner tagline is "The Right Opinion" (hmmm), and the "Top Stories" beneath the article include "Biden’s plan to ingrain abortion even more deeply into American culture" and "Liberals only follow the science when it benefits them", so I think I can take a wild guess at its political leaning from those slightly too shrill headlines…

              And Wikipedia says: The Washington Times was founded on May 17, 1982, by Unification movement leader Sun Myung Moon… Throughout its history, The Washington Times has been known for its conservative political stance… The Washington Times has published many columns which reject the scientific consensus on climate change, on ozone depletion, and on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke…

              I think it's fair to assume that, regardless of its general political alignment, it's not a paper of the calibre of The Washington Post (where, even there, like most newspapers, we always have to pause and be aware of whether its ownership may influence its output).

            4. Mooseman Silver badge

              Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

              @Khaptain

              You are missing the point, as the right wingers always do - the Seuss books weren't "cancelled", the family themselves decided to withdraw them from sale as they were perpetuating racial stereotypes that were unacceptable in modern times. You may bemoan the fact that referring to people with a different skin colour by those delightful names from the 19th century is no longer seen as a good thing, or that cheap shorthand drawings of those people are not socially acceptable, but the point remains that nobody forced anyone to stop publishing those books.

          2. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

            Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

            "Or could it be that the books weren’t selling"

            two of the books are in the top 10 childrens best sellers list every year

            1. 45RPM Silver badge

              Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

              Which ones?

        2. HausWolf

          Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

          Dr Seuss Enterprises canceled those books and actually planned it last year, the "loony commie lefties" had nothing to do with it. People and times evolve, and there is no shame in rethinking things. Look how long it took for the Washington Football Team to finally agree to change it's patently racist name.

          1. Dave559 Silver badge
            Joke

            Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

            "Look how long it took for the Washington Football Team to finally agree to change it's patently racist name."

            On behalf of the rest of the world, can we be equally offended that a sportsball team playing a sport that very rarely actually involves kicking a ball has the temerity to call itself "Football Team"? ;-P

      2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

        The most recent example that springs to mind would be the reaction to J K Rowling's most recent Robert Galbraith novel, where some bookshops decided to boycott the book because it was allegedly "transphobic". It isn't – there is a murderer who occasionally cross dresses, not least to gain victim's trust – but the possibility seems to upset more people than the graphic descriptions torture, rape and murder…

        But I think this logo is just a gaff.

    2. Charles 9

      Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

      Trouble is, many of the ilk simply don't care if it affects them. Others are masochists and WANT it to affect them. Worse, there are LOTS of both ilk, to the point you just can't win.

    3. Citizen of Nowhere

      Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

      Watch the blood pressure there, Khaptain ;-) Hard to distinguish your exaggerated, steam-driven outrage at the culture of outrage from the real (?) thing.

    4. TeeCee Gold badge

      Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

      But iz u get troll pointz for iz get celeb f1r3d or iz corp embarass, yes?

      That's the driving force behind this shit, idiots trying to out-idiot each other.

      Amazon are, very sensibly, going with the policy for this situation laid down by Samuel Langhorne Clemens; "Never get involved in an argument with an idiot. They'll drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.".

      1. onemark03

        Never get involved in an argument with an idiot

        Or a drunk.

      2. TimMaher Silver badge
        Happy

        Re: Cancel Culture Feedback

        Have you been reading Private Eye @Tee?

  10. 45RPM Silver badge

    Come on… Surely the new icon looks more like Hitler, they’ve captured the flick of his herr perfectly.

    1. TimMaher Silver badge
      Pint

      Herr cut.

      Up vote for that @single. I was thinking the same. I even clocked the new logo first when checking the article.

  11. big_D Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    Tash to hairstyle...

    So, they dropped his 'tash and are using his hairstyle instead? Such a big move forward! :-S

  12. Chris G

    Pareidolia?

    I think I've got it, with regard to the cancel culture, every time I see the word I can see a picture of a Mary Whitehouse type of character.

    Someone who wants to impose their prejudices onto everyone else and bask in the sense of power from having screwed successfully with people.

    I say ban people who try to ban things!

    Errrm...except for me.

    1. Arthur the cat Silver badge

      Re: Pareidolia?

      the sense of power from having screwed successfully with people.

      I thought Mary Whitehouse(*) was against screwing successfully with people?

      (*) The original one.

  13. Big_Boomer Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Adolf

    Ahh yes, the great British obsession. Get a ****ing life people. The war ended 75 years ago and he's been dead for 75 years, no matter how many idiot conspiracy theories the obsessives dream up. Move the **** on already!

    What's next? The BP logo makes me think of the Sun and the Sun burns me. BAN IT! The BMW logo reminds me of Stuka dive bombers. BAN IT!

    1. Jimmy2Cows Silver badge

      Re: Adolf

      Given the article author's location (SF), I'm reasonbly (though, admittedly not 100%) confident we British had nothing to do with this situation.

      Amazon came up with a new logo, then decided to go full-bore cancel-culture on itself and euthanased the new design before the offendotrons got the chance.

    2. Potemkine! Silver badge

      Re: Adolf

      Move the **** on already!

      I would rather prefer that we never forget.

      1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

        Re: Adolf

        Indeed, the cost of forgetting is that someone else will come along and do the same things again and nobody will recognise what they are up to and stop them.

        One might even suggest that those so intent on us forgetting the past are the one who wish to repeat it.

        1. Toni the terrible Bronze badge

          Re: Adolf

          Well, there is Trump...

          1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

            Re: Adolf

            Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, Orbán, Johnson, Duda, the list of national leaders who are moving their countries further and further to the right seems to be sadly growing, and persecution of minorities, and those who do not follow the political views of their leaders is on the rise across the world.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Adolf

      Eh? Stukas? How so? Stukas had Jumo (made by Junkers) or Daimer-Benz engines. Are you thinking of the Bf109 which was made by the aviation arm of the merged BFW/BMW? I'll be shuffling back to my pedant's corner now, shall I? :-)

      1. TeeCee Gold badge

        Re: Adolf

        I don't think the post was even that well thought-out and it's just down to the, wholly apocryphal, tale of the BMW logo representing a running aircraft prop.

        Incidently, the original Focke-Wulf 190 came with a BMW radial engine. That didn't get the Junckers-Jumo until the G variant (which is why you get an aircraft sporting both a radial cowl and a line of exhausts down the side).

        1. Nick Pettefar

          Re: Adolf

          But but but the BMW logo is just a circular version of the Bavarian flag. Have you never been to the Oktoberfest?

  14. RobLang

    I don't think this is cancel culture because...

    People weren't threatening to boycott Amazon. People on social media pointed out (mostly laughing) that their logo looks a bit Hitler. Like all publicity Amazon had two choices: keep it, ride the wave and try and make "light of it" (perhaps not possible given the connection) or change it and the story goes away. That's not "cancel culture".

    1. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

      Re: I don't think this is cancel culture because...

      They did both

  15. tiggity Silver badge

    Richard Herring

    Hitler Moustache needs a mention - worth reading about his experience trying it

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not convinced Amazon slightly modifying its app logo is the perfect example of the Terror of Cancel Culture the article's author appears to believe it is.

    Unless the US Supreme Court recently decided that apps are people too, and their freedom of putting money in politics^W^W^W^Wexpression can't be curtailed?

  17. Warm Braw

    Jesus On Toast!

    ... is going to be my new expletive of choice.

  18. Dr_N
    Coat

    Like the 3D Autostereogram from the '90s

    Nope. Can't really see it.

  19. Roger Kynaston
    Joke

    Can anyone spot Stalin in the new logo?

    NP

  20. Brad16800
    Trollface

    All for this. Next thing we to modify is clouds!

    1. TimMaher Silver badge
      Trollface

      “Next thing we modify is clouds!”

      The next thing that we should modify is ‘The cloud’.

      FTFY @Brad.

  21. TheProf
    Devil

    Well done Amazon

    The crafty b8stards have got a load of free publicity for themselves by making up some story about a logo redesign.

    Next week: How Jeff Bezos escaped death when he wasn't hit by a meteorite.

  22. Prst. V.Jeltz Silver badge

    I had to look up "pareidolia"

    now i find out theres a rabbit on the moon!

    1. Loyal Commenter Silver badge
      Boffin

      Pareidolia is a "feature" not a "bug", in the sense that it is a hard-wired evolved part of our visual system. I believe the consensus understanding is that is a predator-avoidance system. Better to run away from something that looks like a pair of eyes in the bushes than be eaten by a lion. We therefore pick out things that look like faces (human or animal) and interpret them as those first, before we have had a better look.

  23. Loyal Commenter Silver badge

    Perhaps a more appropriate icon

    Would be one of a rampaging ravenous demon, consuming all in its path, and shitting out neatly taped-up cardboard boxes?

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Devil

      Re: Perhaps a more appropriate icon

      It’s a great idea. But marketing have vetoed it. They say it might not be good for the company image...

  24. lglethal Silver badge
    Trollface

    To steal an old joke

    Pareidolia isn't a real word. It just looks like one.

  25. This post has been deleted by its author

  26. FlamingDeath Silver badge

    Probably a nod to the military industrial complex, ‘please give us more contracts, look we have a hitler moustache, Microsoft doesn’t have one of these’

  27. Jedit Silver badge
    Joke

    But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

    I mean, they have to be. I tried to order a snooker table from Amazon, but they only had one ball.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Coat

      Re: But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

      This is an article about Amazon! If you want to make snooker-related jokes, please get to the back of the cue.

      1. David 132 Silver badge
        Coat

        Re: But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

        Or look on E-Baize website.

    2. Chris G

      Re: But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

      I bought my snooker table from eBay, it had two balls but very small.

    3. ChrisC Silver badge

      Re: But Amazon really are Hitler, aren't they?

      You forgot to order the optional Albert Hall accessories package, didn't you...

  28. Kerry Hoskin

    Don't know what all the fuss is about its not Adolf it's Ron Mael from Sparks obviously https://www.pinterest.co.uk/bostondoggs/sparks-band/

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      And they still put on a great show. Saw them not long before the lockdown.

  29. FBee

    No logo, just the name...

    Unfortunately, now out-of-business but they had a lot of balls - C.O.Jones

  30. Deft

    I'd like to admit....

    Obviously my brain doesn't process images well, I didn't even think the bendy arrow thing was a smile. I just thought it meant "we're really good at moving things from A to B". Just like a pointless Nike swoosh.

    1. David 132 Silver badge

      Re: I'd like to admit....

      Actually if you look at the full logo, as seen for example in the top-left corner of their main page... the arrow goes from A to Z.

      Which I thought was clever when I spotted it, but then I’m a sucker for hidden elements in logos, like the Toblerone bear or the FedEx arrow.

  31. heyrick Silver badge

    That chicken logo...

    ...is so obviously a dick in the throes of excitement (whoa! chicken! yes!), it's hard to believe it wasn't done on purpose with the aim of getting lots of free publicity for a place many people have probably never heard of.

    1. dik.bozo

      Re: That chicken logo...

      Could be, but now that I have seen the logo, as you realize, WE can't un-see it.

  32. MJI Silver badge

    Clouds

    Saw one a few years ago

    Looked like a Star Trek ship

    NCC1701D to be exact

    Just wich I had a picture

  33. Potemkine! Silver badge

    IMNSHO, the new logo is worse, because it reminds me the way Hitler's haircut. And the brown color like the brown shirts... If Amazon gets 1 or 2 millions $ it doesn't know what to do with, I can design them a new, not offending logo. Just contact me.

  34. jpo234

    I see a mohawk.

  35. A. Coatsworth Silver badge

    Doppelgänger everywhere!

    On the subject of logos and seeing figures in the clouds, I always thought the logo for Costa Rica's meteorology institute (https://www.imn.ac.cr/en/inicio) could pass for a gentle brother of El Reg's vulture

  36. JDPower Bronze badge
    Facepalm

    Clicked on the linked logo stories and have just discovered the Deliveroo logo is a kangaroo! For as long as I've known of their existence I thought it was a hand giving the peace sign! I realise I'm late to the party on this one but ruddy hell that's a crap logo!

  37. Paul S. Gazo
    Meh

    And they still don't do anything about the obvious...

    That arrow has always resembled a cartoon/icon penis.

  38. Danny 2

    Pareidolia is evolutionary essential

    It's pattern recognition, for spotting snakes in the grass. Or lions in the grass. Or tigers in the grass.

    This also explains lawnmowers.

    1. TomPhan

      Re: Pareidolia is evolutionary essential

      https://youtu.be/tPSFpaCQEvA

      1. Danny 2

        Re: Pareidolia is evolutionary essential

        Thank you Tom, I rate Sparks but never followed them so that was nice. Have an irrelevant anecdote in return.

        I've assembled and disassembled three lawnmowers for my parents since lockdown. One parent has been diagnosed with dementia, and the other hasn't, been diagnosed. Their lawn is so small that scissors would be easier. But they have an Amazon account and aren't afraid to use it.

        I lived in a country cottage with an untameable wild garden that broke both me and my lawnmower. I just wanted somewhere to lie down in the few hours of sun we get here, so I carved out a me shaped hole in the long grass much to my neighbours amusement.

        I used to chuck in sheep from the neighbouring field in to help civilise the grass. I considered taking down the fence but then the cows would get in too.

  39. First Light

    But humans with the moustache

    I know a guy, actually from Austria, who wears an exact Hitler mustache. He seems like a lovely person. But his haircut is very short and he's Austrian and with the mustache, it gives a certain . . . aura. When he visits where I live, I keep thinking, surely someone has told him to get rid of the damn thing? Or grow it differently? But it never goes away. Really hoping he's not a full-fledged Nazi.

    1. LogicGate Silver badge

      Re: But humans with the moustache

      Or ze Germans invented some amazing anti-aging treatments in the late fourties, and you are the only one who has made the connection and lived to tell about it ..

      ...so far..

      Take care around Herr flick lookalikes.

  40. TomPhan

    Hitler to a T

    Who can forget his infectious smile, his tanned face, and his blue mustache?

  41. Eponymous Bastard

    Charlie Chaplin anyone?

    I have always maintained that anyone who has a problem with the toothbrush moustache should have a look at the 'tache Charlie Chaplin sported some years before 'dolf got his unterhose in a twist.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Amazon's logo looks like a penis

    I can't believe that no-one's talking about this.

    Amazon's arrow logo looks like a penis. It's always looked like a penis. A long, erect penis, with a distinct but not unusual curve, as seen from below.

    When the logo was introduced, everyone in the Slough office said "but it looks like a penis". Management kept it anyway.

    How are they removing hitler tape, but they're keeping the penis?

    And how come no-one's talking about this?

  43. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Democracy, get used to it. People are free to choose what they find objectionable and to object to it. As long as the objection does not cross into hate, racism, calls for violence or calls to over throw a democracies government, it is a good thing.

  44. Nick Pettefar

    Amazon Logo

    But surely the Amazon logo IS a penis.

    Or is that just me???

  45. navarac Bronze badge

    It's all so pathetic.

  46. martinusher Silver badge

    That's what cartoons do to people

    The Amazon logo has never looked anything like Hitler. This noise is really an expression of our culture of ignorance, an enormous cultural fatberg of people who know little and shout a lot, hyper enabled by an Internet echo chamber.

    Like anyone else in history, Hitler by himself was "mostly harmless". As a vegetarian, a resolute non-smoker and general health nut he'd fit in quite well in modern society. His ideas are also quite reasonable sounding, you can find them being voiced by many people today, including many Republican politicians and (with the MAGA crew making a very good impression of Brownshirts). We swim in this environment oblivious to the danger it poses because for many -- most -- of us Hitler is just a cartoon, a cartoon of on 'evil', so as long as we don't go around in a designer uniform sporting a toothbrush mustache we're all good with nothing to worry about. After all, it can't happen here, can it?

  47. Auntie Dix
    Terminator

    Forget the Logo: Replace Jeff Bezos and His Squeeze

    Bezos looks like Egghead; his plastic-surgery squeeze, The Joker.

    Do we have to wait for their icons?

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