Backpedaling from one of the biggest marketing gaffs in recent history, Gap, following overwhelming public pressure, has, unsurprisingly, announced it will box it’s new logo and return to the original design. Announced last week, the new logo, designed by Laird & Partners, was roundly mocked by the design community, especially when the brand asked designers to “crowdsource” new ideas (un-related to the new logo the brand insists) for free.
A statement on the brand’s Facebook page now reads, “Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowdsourcing, we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.”
While an Ipsos Observer poll of 1,000 consumers found 80 percent had no idea the logo had even changed, our own survey (of the ad community, obviously) found 88 percent did not like the new logo.
Amongst the sea of tweets and blog posts mocking the brand and sharing disdain for the new design, the most hilarious thing to come out of this debacle was a site called Crap Logo Yourself, a site which made it very easy to create a Gap-like logo simply by entering some text. We even used the tool to create a new logo for Adrants.
Late this afternoon, Gap marketing employees were informed by Gap North America President Marka Hansen of the return to the original design. An official announcement was expected to be made at 4:30PM Pacific time.
And so the saga comes to a close.
What’s really funny, though, is the fact that while we all had our panties in a bunch over this logo debacle, Joe Public – you know, the people who actually buy the brand’s clothing – had no idea this was happening. In all liklihood they would have accepted whatever image was hoisted over the doorway of retail outlets without a second thought.
