So, let me get this straight. My imbedded source in Londontown reports the Brits have their knickers in a twist over the newly unveiled 2012 London Olympics logo. I mean, those knickers are twisted over this. The new design is polling lower than Shrub’s latest ratings in the US, that’s how much the Brits seem to hate this logo.
Why? Well, first off, there’s the issue of the seizures. It seems that when the animation of the new logo was shown on the telly, it reportedly triggered 22 epileptic seizures and was the cause of an unknown number of migraines and vomiting. Come on…can it be THAT bad? I have seen a lot of bad graphics in my life, but none actually made me hurl.
With the Brits so unhappy, it’s a good thing the designer was one of their own. London-based brand consultants Wolff Olins designed the controversial logo and got paid handsomely for it. $800,000, which would be more if that were Euros and not dollars. I need to nail that amount down, because a seven-figure amount was also kicked around the day the 2012 was unveiled. I guess for that kind of coin, one would expect a lot less vomiting and absolutely no seizures. It’s just not good business to make people physically ill when they see your logo.
The question of it being downright ugly is also part of the gripe. It’s not like Wolff Olins is a new kid to this Olympic design world. They were the firm that did the Athens Olympics logo. Their work is worldwide and includes such prestigious clients as Tate Modern and UNICEF, GE and Lloyds TSB, one of the biggest banks in the UK. None of their work has proved to be a health hazard until now.
What happened then? One word – expectations.
The Brits did not expect the logo they got. They expected to see something that made them proud, made them comfortable, made them feel part of the larger whole that is Britain. They expected something BETTER. Not something jumbled and ragged and odd. Not something they consider jarring and so…so…so UNBritish! Brits can’t be proud of this and Brits love to feel proud. They revel in pomp and pageantry. The Brits invented the jolly good show, after all.
The marketing lesson we have in this is simple. Knowing what the buyer expects has to play a major part in the marketing product, whether it’s a logo, a color combination, an animation, music, dialogue or actor cast in a role. Wolff Olins either wasn’t given good direction, wasn’t managed along the way, or they delivered a logo that met the expectations of someone who doesn’t understand the reason they had the logo done in the first place.
And that’s what Dunne said about that.
