You Go Logo
by digby
The administration rolled out a new logo last week and it looks like this:
And apparently, it’s controversial. (What isn’t?)
BLITZER: Supporters of President Obama helped make his campaign famous with logos like these. Now, the administration is rolling out more graphic designs to help his causes. But not everyone is giving them rave reviews.
Let’s bring in CNN’s Samantha Hayes.
She’s taking a closer look at this story.
What are you finding — Samantha?
SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, you know, some are more effective than others. And, you know, companies do this all the time. They use a logo or an emblem to identify a product, to send a message — even sometimes try to elicit some kind of emotion.
Well, now the Obama administration is using that one to identify projects associated with the recent $787 billion stimulus package.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HAYES (voice-over): President Barack Obama wants you to associate this logo with one thing.
OBAMA: Let it be a reminder that our government, your government, is doing its part to put the economy back on the road of — of recovery.
HAYES: The White House tells CNN the O-shaped American Recovery and Reinvestment Act emblem speaks to investments in green energy, infrastructure and health care.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I like that he just actually took the time out and broke — broke it into three categories, instead of just having one logo, to show everybody that he cares about more than one issue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He’s trying to get people back to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can see other people saying, well, why are you spending so much time on creating the logos, you know?
I mean, it might have created jobs.
HAYES: Rob Frankel has written a book on branding. He says the emblem is missing something.
ROB FRANKEL, BRANDING EXPERT: Unfortunately, it lacks any type of inspiration. And in these types of economic times, inspiration is almost all you’ve got.
HAYES: He compares it to FDR’s Works Progress Administration logo and this one from President Gerald’s Ford’s Whip Inflation Now campaign.
FRANKEL: I think an important aspect here is that this logo comes across as simply just another government service. And that sets up the expectation of, again, here’s what the government is going to do, as opposed to here’s how you can get involved.
HAYES: It’s been hit or miss with Mr. Obama’s logos. The O logo during the campaign was seen everywhere. But he came under fire last June for this one, displayed during a meeting of Democratic governors. Critics said it looked an awful lot like the presidential seal — a presumptive move by then candidate Obama.
But as president, he continues to push his brand and right now, that’s job creation, green energy and health care.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HAYES: Well, the same Chicago firm that did that O logo for the campaign also did this one, the stimulus logo. And the White House told me that the firm did the work for the stimulus logo it pro bono and that the administration paid the production costs. It was about $3,000.
BLITZER: Thanks very much.
I’ll leave the marketing and artistic critique to others. But I will say that I think it’s absolutely fantastic that they are doing this at all.
I was involved in a discussion some time back with some friends who were tossing around thoughts about the new liberal era in the wake of an Obama victory. And one of the smartest, I thought, was the idea of labeling government work as government work. The taxpayers have always funded massive amounts of good and services, but it seemed to me that the public literally didn’t know what they were and were therefore always vulnerable to the right wing propaganda that the government only sucked the lifeblood from the people and never gave them back anything in return.
This was before the full extent of this meltdown was known, so the idea of a New, New Deal was only percolating. But everyone thought that it was important to figure out some sort of symbol or sign and slap it on government projects. And so it has come to pass.
I personally don’t care if it inspires people to get involved or if it is artistically exciting. I just think it’s smart to have some kind of label to stick all over this country on everything the government is doing on the people’s behalf. It’s a subliminal identification that is part of an overall strategy to change people’s relationship to the government and that’s, as Martha Stewart says, a good thing.
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