How BAD is it? Oh it’s BAD.

Here’s a fact about me – I’m a Helvetica atheist. Yup that’s right I said it. I’m not a believer in our lord and saviour Helvetica and I sure as hell don’t think it’s the holy grail of typography. In fact, at the risk of assassination, I’m gonna put it out there – its not really that different from Arial anyway! (yeah, take that ya plaid shirt, skinny jean, horn-rimmed glasses wearing, emo-haircutted, pierced and tattooed lot.)

Turns out that the pleasure of having the last laugh is all mine. If anyone’s seen the new and supposedly improved version of the Gap logo they’ll know what I’m talking about. Not only does it come off as pretentious as opposed to the ‘modern’ and ‘clean’ look I’m sure the designers were going for, it doesn’t hold a candle to their previous one. And you know why? Because the design looks like it was done in MS Word. I’m all for clean and modern and ya-da-ya-da but taking a classic design and taking away every bit of personality it ever had is not original, it’s just silly. I’d have loved to be a fly on the wall during the meeting where the designer came up with, what I’m sure must’ve been, an insightful rationale for this logo with a boardroom full of suits hailing his every word as gospel (I’m willing to bet my right hand that there was some discussion about thinking ‘outside the box’).

good ol' classic on the left and well the new one on the right

Anyway so after an online outcry, initially Gap tried salvaging the situation by allowing their Facebook friends to come up with their own logos. Turns out that in this digital age, “friends” don’t really like working for free and so the backlash continued. Till Gap held up their hands, admitted their marketing boo-boo and decided to revert back to the previous logo. All was good again in the world, and somewhere out there the designers of the Pepsi logo sniggered ironically at the fact that Tropicana and Gap have had their branding efforts blow up in their faces and somehow that monstrosity of a Pepsi logo persists. Sigh.

Check out this link to make your own crap umm i mean Gap logo - http://www.makeyourowngaplogo.com/

ADvantage Microsoft…really? No really.

If the world of smart phones were high school then Apple would be the popular head cheerleader and Microsoft would be the head, and probably only member, of the stamp collector’s club (I mean how is this the same company that makes and markets the Xbox??!).

But there’s something different about their latest (and some might argue – last) attempt at taking the smart phone market by storm. It seems like they actually know what they’re doing this time. For once they seem like they really have a plan.

On first view it seemed odd that any marketer would parody the idea that we spend too much time on our phones while trying to sell us umm a phone. I mean it gives me the impression that their phone maybe isn’t as interesting or apptastic as the iphone or android. But on further viewing (and after having someone explain to me that the simplicity of their interface actually makes Windows 7 phones a lot more user-friendly), I got it.

Maybe it’s my instinct to eternally root for the underdog (or maybe I’m just hopped up on the candy bar I ate for lunch) but I love that their insight is so human and relatable and just plain funny. Plus it’s a bit of a teaser. I may not buy the phone but I’m gonna be scanning the reviews to find out just how it’s going to ‘save us from our phones’. Could Microsoft, dare I say it, become cool? Sadly, I feel like most people would come to the same initial conclusion that I did (just wish they had been a bit less subtle about how user-friendly it is). So despite a pretty neat campaign I think it might be too smart for its own good.

 

 

These shoes weren’t mADe for walking

Don’t get me wrong, I think the ad is hilarious, but am I the only one who feels like everyone on Diesel’s marketing team is a 19 year old, beer pong loving, football obsessed frat boy (from hereon referred to only as 19YOBPLFOFB)? First the whole stupid > smart thing, and now this.

Ass kicking is so 2010, walking is so 2000 and then (what? Joaquin Phoenix can fake rap and I can’t??) – the insight is definitely new. It works for Diesel. All they had to do was make sure they came off as cool to the afore mentioned 19YOBPLFOFBs and I think they succeeded (mind you I myself am not a 19YOBPLFOFB so this is just speculation on my part). Its funny, well shot and will probably go viral – which pretty much equates to job well done.

On a side note the campaign is a total 360 – TV, print, web (they’re definitely making sure people take their kick ass message seriously). Check it out here.