The Recession is Bad News for Logos

The New York Times has an article on April 23, 2009 titled "Losing Its Cool at the Mall" that suggests people are less willing to pay a premium for logo-decorated clothing as a result of the financial crisis. The article notes that higher-priced clothing from Abercrombie & Fitch, for example, is "similar to those at the company's Hollister or Ruehl stores, except for the prices and logos." Its sales have dropped significantly. One 17-year-old is quoted as saying "Labels are becoming less and less of a priority for people throughout my school."

David Bordwell on Bugs

Film scholar David Bordwell has an illuminating essay on the history of bugs, those obnoxious logos in the corners of your television screen.

Satellite Dish Logos

I have DishNetwork satellite service, which requires two dishes (one to get local high definition). Now, satellite dishes are not the most attractive things to begin with, but both major satellite systems add their logos to the dish surface, which forces me to advertise them to passers by. Even worse, my two dishes face in different directions, so people coming down the street either way get a good view of one of them.

DirecTV is no better:

And there is no inexpensive way to deal with the annoyance. The dishes are coated to repel snow, so spray-painting the logo could cause problems. There are companies that sell dish covers — at about $30 each — but nearly all of them have a logo of some sort as well. Some are remarkably ugly. One company even sells a light fixture to illuminate its cover so your neighbors can view your favorite university logo at night.

I could go back to Comcast, but given miserable experiences with their customer service, that isn't an attractive option. I'm waiting for ATT to extend their U-Verse capacity to my neighborhood so that I can dump both dishes.

Logos and Luxury Don't Go Together?

The November 16, 2008 issue of the New York Times Magazine has an interesting piece titled "The Brand-ness of Strangers."

It reports some research on the effects brands have on us. Among other findings, people who saw photos that included a bottle of Dasani were more likely to choose that brand when given a choice of four brands, even though they didn't consciously notice the bottle when looking at the photograph (they were asked to focus on the expressions of the people, not other things in the photo).

The article concludes with a discussion of Ralph Lauren's many lines. The Polo logo is widespread, but the logo "is completely absent from Lauren's high-end subbrands, presumably on the theory that the discerning self-identities of such status-conscious consumers clash with flashing an emblem worn by the masses."

More on American Apparel

In the previous post, I mention American Apparel, which sells clothing with no logos. A little digging finds a more detailed 2005 article on the company from Inc.com:

"So what is this American Apparel? A company of basics built upon a foundation of simple, plain-colored T-shirts. Tees were the first items Charney produced when he set up shop in 1997 and still account for the lion's share of the business--but the line is spreading like a rash. Today American Apparel makes socks, underwear, sweatshirts, jackets, dresses, tank tops, polo shirts, baby clothes, dog clothes, and, as of this summer, swimwear. The clothes have no logos, no ornamentation, not a single flourish or bauble; differentiation comes from an array of colors that now includes fluorescents and from slim and sexy cuts that attract young buyers and allow the simple cotton garments to serve as something larger--core elements of a fashionable wardrobe."

The Best Brand? No Brand.

Such is the title of a brief story in the June 30, 2008 issue of Newsweek. It reviews Rob Walker's new book Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (Random House, 2008). The article mentions two particularly interesting companies and logos (of lack thereof). Back in 2003, Dunkin' Donuts paid people to wear temporary tattoos on their foreheads. On the other hand, American Apparel sells clothing with no logos. I'm with them, and will have to look into their offerings.

TV Logos Revisited

Several months ago, I noted annoying "bugs" on television channels. Dish Network just revised its channel offerings, which encouraged me to go though the line-up to look for interesting new channels. Instead, I found new, and sometimes even more obnoxious, logos.

The first I noted was the History Channel's vivid red and gold logo:



The Discovery Channel made theirs more vivid as well, adding a rotating globe, which is not evident in this still, to further distract the viewer's attention from the programming:



The Learning Channel still wants to be in the running for impossible-to-ignore logos too, having made their previously obnoxious logo even more so: