Catching up on some American Dad on a Wednesday night after a long day at the office and I notice that Julie Hagerty is next up in Old Navy’s list of blast-du-past actors doing commercials for the clothing company.
There was my favorite, Mayim Bialik and Joey Lawrence doing their Blossom pair-up (bonus: Check out the SNL sketch poking fun of Mayim and Joey’s commercial; and my BGFBWHNMYYHDKWF* George Takei had his own spots; then there was that one with The Backstreet Boys and the Boyz II Men/Johnny Mathis/Jordan Knight … and then my favsies: Mario Cantone and Joan Rivers being “nice” . Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of the work that Crispin Porter + Bogusky put out: Their Best Buy commercials with Amy Pohler were extremely well written…
But here’s the deal: It’s 2013. Twitter updated and unveiled their new logo in June 6, 2012. The Twitter logo in the Old Navy 2013 commercial is not the correct logo for a brand that prides itself on being fun, current and trendy (I mean, it’s George Takei for warpsake!). Luckily, Old Navy has seen the error of their ways (or someone at Twitter tweeted their mistake) and their newest commercial, posted a week ago, uses the correct Twitter logo.
I’ve been called a grammar-snob, a punctuation-snob, even a snobzberry (who ever heard of a snobzberry!?) but now, in the name of being a brand ambassador of multiple world-wide recognized brands, let me remind you all: It’s important to respect the brands you’re touting especially in social media where change is fast, frequent and separates the early bird from the worm.
None of these logos are current or valid anymore:
The wordmark (L-R, #2), the first letter of the wordmark (#1), the cartoon version of the bird (#3), the bird flying to the right (and not at an angle) with a fringe of banged hair.
Remember, friends:
- If the Twitter bird has a haircut that looks as if it has bangs, or is flying straight on with no angle (that is, to the right and not upward at a 33° angle), it’s old and wrong.
- If you’re using the logotype for Twitter which is all lowercase, it’s old and wrong.
- Same goes for using the initial ‘t’ from the old logotype to represent the logotype as an icon: because, you guessed it! It’s old and wrong.
Nearly a year ago, Twitter joined the ranks of Nike and McDonalds where their logo doesn’t require a wordmark for their brand. And that’s not to say they’re “too cool”; or that Nike’s shoes are better than, say, Addidas; McDonalds’ burgers are more delicious than Taco Bell’s delicacies (geez, now I’m totally craving Taco Bell, you guys!); or that Twitter is the best microblogging site in Internetdomlandinghood (it’s just, y’know… the most prolific.) And my opinion is: if you’re going to brand, like Old Navy does, by reminding people that you’re current, trendy, hip, with-it, cool and in-the-know: use the most up-to-date logo and prove that you know not just how to use social media, but that you pay attention to it.
* Best Girl Friend But We Have Never Met…Yet. Also He Doesn’t Know We’re Friends