O look! Another O logo! Update: Ripoff of Flying A? Update: Maybe REO?
posted at 9:10 am on August 16, 2008 by Ed Morrissey
Send to a Friend |
Share on Facebook | printer-friendly
The Barack Obama campaign learned one lesson from its Vero Possumus fiasco, and apparently only one lesson: Latin is elitist. They still haven’t figured out that drawing fancy logos for a candidate reminds people of high-school elections. Here’s the latest reason from Team Obama that we’re supposed to feel confident in The One’s ability to lead a nation:
Greg Sargent at TPM reports that the campaign will roll this out today:
According to an Obama aide, the new effort dovetails with a renewed push by the Obama team in Pennsylvania to poke fun at John McCain’s recent claim that he would rather hear the roar of “50,000 Harleys” than the cheering of 200,000 Berliners.
As the Obama camp was quick to point out, McCain opposed legislation that would have forced the U.S. government to buy American-made motorcycles.
This allegation is, to be fair, true, but somewhat pointless. Quick question: why would the US government need to buy motorcycles in the first place? And for what little need it has for such vehicles, why should the US government lock itself into a single-source supply? No other significant mass-production producer of motorcycles exists in the US. I can see excluding certain imports based on the behavior of the source nations, but to cut off British, German, and Japanese sources simply out of protectionism doesn’t make economic or diplomatic sense — especially when American companies compete for government contracts abroad.
So, in response, we get yet another silly logo from Team Obama, telling people to Buy American, but using the Obama logo in place of the American flag. It’s targeted to those folks that Barack Obama believes cling bitterly to their religion and guns, and hoping that he can exploit that bitterness for a few more votes among small-town voters. This looks a lot more like Buy Obama than Buy American, and unfortunately, fewer and fewer people are buying Mr. Logo any more.
Update: Did Obama rip off this logo from the famous Flying A gasoline logo? You decide:
Update II: Heard it from a friend, who … heard it from a friend, who … heard it from another Obama got it from here:
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Blowback
Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.
Trackbacks/Pings
Trackback URL
Comments
Comment pages: « 1 [2]
TRC, you’re such an idealist.
Entelechy on August 16, 2008 at 2:55 PM
Vero Possumus: Possibly True. Then again, maybe not.
maverick muse on August 16, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Not that this matters, but props “screwing” in opposite directions, actually called “counter rotating” props,
(clockwise left engine, CCW on the right)
do so to prevent “P” factor, and eliminate the so called “critical engine” in an engine out scenario. Many twins used for training purposes, such as the Piper Seminole, incorporate counter rotating props.
But more on topic, this new logo is pathetic!
bernzright777 on August 16, 2008 at 3:04 PM
The Race Card on August 16, 2008 at 2:52 PM
It’s true what you say about logos and branding - and how much those things matter to youth. But this particular logo has zero youth-appeal. It’s total nostalgia, a pander to the old bitter clingers. Route 66 kind of stuff, that flies in the face of hope-n-change. His campaign suffers from multiple personality disorder on many levels.
innominatus on August 16, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Man, it so pisses me off that Obama has managed to totally screw up the initial of my last name. The O will never be the same, alas!
Bob's Kid on August 16, 2008 at 3:27 PM
.
Looks to me like the children did it. Prolly got a goodly amount deposited in a trust fund for doing it too.
News2Use on August 16, 2008 at 3:43 PM
Typical: massive Style Over Substance - “We may have an empty suit, but we have logos!”
Fixed it for you.
rockbend on August 16, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Well, he’s going to steal money from my paycheck, so this really isn’t news to me he’s stealing from another.
OOPS! Is that racist - to say “he’s going to steal” since Hussein is half-black? Did I blaspheme?
madmonkphotog on August 16, 2008 at 3:45 PM
I just hope this Obama disappears after he loses the election. I am so sick of him that I am terminal.
carbon_footprint on August 16, 2008 at 3:50 PM
You aren’t the only one to notice this, Ed. A commenter called Notropis over at Ace’s saw a simularity, too. Jeeze, it’s as though Obama is SO pretentious, he’s hoping we don’t notice.
BillH on August 16, 2008 at 4:05 PM
How is that an American Symbol? I mean red white and blue buy American. I bet Walmart buys Chinese…where is their red white and blue logo:)
Dr Evil on August 16, 2008 at 4:20 PM
Why would the Obama Campaign even ‘want to go there’ since Obama himself is is hardly a true-blue All American boy:
(If I wanted to be nasty, I could say only his lips are true-blue)
He has been spouting that “Citizen of the World crap;
Father not an American;
Stepfather not an American;
Mother a non-patriotic sort, an occasional expat;
Questions, (legitimate or not) as to whether he is even actually an American citizen.
So, If I wanted to “Buy American” I sure wouldn’t be buying Obama.
LegendHasIt on August 16, 2008 at 4:24 PM
Mayb Obama will ‘fly’ to the Denver arena in a Rocketeer outfit on invisible wires fighting a retro Nazi who looks suspiciously like Mitt Romney?
This O campaign has long ago gone goofy.
OBANANAS!
profitsbeard on August 16, 2008 at 4:25 PM
innominatus on August 16, 2008 at 2:45 PM
This might help you to understand the logic behind their decision.
DaveS on August 16, 2008 at 4:29 PM
Logic is indignant.
Entelechy on August 16, 2008 at 4:32 PM
P.U.M.A. uses the Obama logo with some added creativity at the end of this video if this is what Hillary’s support is like. Obama is going to “Hope” he remembered to wear a cup. Weaker sex my …
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qv9QKiNqFro&feature=related
Dr Evil on August 16, 2008 at 4:45 PM
Yes but the void in the center of the logo corresponds so nicely to the void in the center of the candidate.
It may not be an effective logo, but it’s certainly an accurate one (at least as far as the visual goes).
AZCoyote on August 16, 2008 at 4:50 PM
Well why wouldn’t they steal a logo from Flying A?
They stole their own logo from Horizon Air.
Typhoon on August 16, 2008 at 5:10 PM
OMG, it looks even MORE like Goatse
Sekhmet on August 16, 2008 at 5:24 PM
I see another gestalt possibility in the graphic arrangement of this new logo, which would also explain why the O is at the center. Imagine you are looking down from above at Jesus hanging on a cross; the wings are an iteration of outstretched arms and pectoral muscles facing forward toward “Vote for Barack Obama”, and the blue and red “O” is a crown of thorns. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, it works….
OC Sandman on August 16, 2008 at 5:27 PM
LOL!
*fires up Photoshop*
Don’t worry, I shan’t share the results :)
Ugly on August 16, 2008 at 5:42 PM
REO Speedwagon logo.
jaime on August 16, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Dr. Evil:
Why go after WalMart? Democrats try to pretend that working Americans do not shop at WalMart, but they do everyday in the millions. The prices are better and that is important to working Americans. This is something Democrats and union officials do that I just do not get. Do they really think rank and file union members and Democrats are not at Walmart buying everything from toilet paper to school supplies?
Terrye on August 16, 2008 at 5:47 PM
From a very experienced art director’s perspective: no. It’s more an amalgam of styles and evocations than it is a direct ripoff of anything.
As I mentioned previously, the inspiration is the graphics associated with the Works Progress Administration and the National Recovery Administration et al. The final design incorporates a minimalist, condescending nod to both Harley-Davidson and gas station brands of decades past, and is meant to evoke the halcyon (? To Democrats, I guess) days of the Great Depression.
I’m saying this from the perspective of the person assigned to make such a logo - I’ve been in that situation a zillion times and I think I can accurately guess the process involved, and the milieu in which it’s executed.
That this new logo flat-out sucks is entirely the responsibility of the Obama campaign though. Please don’t blame the artist who probably tried to talk them out of doing something this stupid…
Gilda on August 16, 2008 at 6:06 PM
Looks a bit like the Aerosmith logo to me…
ynot4tony2 on August 16, 2008 at 6:13 PM
Logos… meh
If Obamadouche is elected, logos are the least of our problems.
bloviator on August 16, 2008 at 6:23 PM
Change you can Xer… ox?
Seixon on August 16, 2008 at 6:24 PM
UGH
well,he isnt getting this bitter Pennsylvanians vote.
I am sooo sick of him and his pandering BS. I dont think I’ll make it till the election.
becki51758 on August 16, 2008 at 7:04 PM
And your take on the Obama O and the Horizon Air logo?
http://www.al-airliners.be/d-j/horizon/qx-dhc-8-100.jpg
Typhoon on August 16, 2008 at 7:13 PM
“Howdy cowboy?” That’s it!!! The punk is ripping off Gene Autry!!
ScottG on August 16, 2008 at 7:15 PM
Wow. I hadn’t seen the Flying A logo since O’Donnell’s gas station in my hometown was demolished in favor of a car wash.
But I digress. At least they’ve changed the insipid sky blue/teal in the Obama logo to match the blue they’re using on the background. My limited experience in graphics has always told me the combination of that blue in the rainbow/arc/circle thing on the deep blue background on Obama ‘08 bumper stickers just doesn’t work aesthetically. Which to me has been just another reason they don’t know what they’re doing.
Captain Scarlet on August 16, 2008 at 7:38 PM
If Team Obama can pull off a subtle tubgirl-based logo, I might be persuaded to vote for him.
But two-candidates-one-cup will cause me to renounce my citizenship.
sulla on August 16, 2008 at 7:56 PM
Ughhh…any time I see a new logo, I see goatse.
BryanS on August 16, 2008 at 8:26 PM
Flying A oil? That must be why the new logo immediately conjured images of this.
Now I feel really old.
obladioblada on August 16, 2008 at 8:42 PM
Coincidence at most.
Obama’s art-staff “decorators” are far too unsophisticated to adapt this obscure logo-reminiscence deliberately.
They follow much broader art direction guidelines: triumphant, dominant, savior, the One And Only. American symbols exist only so far as they glorify Obama; other corporate approaches are valid only if they can be bastardized in service to the great Transformative Cause that Obama supposedly represents (ref Harley et al).
Gilda on August 16, 2008 at 9:47 PM
I was thinking it looked like a belt that a Super Hero or weight lifter might wear. Maybe Barry (who likes to frequent the gym, often many times a day!) should try this out on location and see how it goes over.
Assuming all goes well, why not wear it during the debates and on the convention floor! Heck, it would look fabulous at an Inauguration too, so why not flaunt it? Just add “Vero Possumus” and strut.
Buy Danish on August 16, 2008 at 10:26 PM
No thanks, I try to avoid buying sh!t.
4shoes on August 16, 2008 at 10:37 PM
Whew, sorry about the crass language, I must be more tired than I thought.
4shoes on August 16, 2008 at 10:38 PM
What about Gene Autry’s Flying A Pictures?
http://www.geneautry.com/geneautry/television/television_flyingapictures.html
slp on August 17, 2008 at 12:10 AM
Dear Ed,
Not nice to call Obama a “flying A.”
Dr. Charles G. Waugh on August 17, 2008 at 12:22 AM
i work for a web/graphic design company. my designers could come up with something better and more original than this in about 30 minutes. that goes for the lame presidential seal, too.
homesickamerican on August 17, 2008 at 12:35 AM
Looks like a take off of the old Union Pacific logo from the 40’s and 50’s on the nose of an F7 or GS4 loco.
coldwarrior on August 17, 2008 at 12:46 AM
Excellent link and article linked. Thanks, elduende.
S on August 17, 2008 at 1:39 AM
Ditto, in general (I don’t work for a design company but have in my earlier days).
The design coming from the Obama campaign is…well, it’s repulsive, visually and emotionally. Dark, theatrical, moody, fake. The essence is not producing a good emotional response in viewers but a poor one — people either get upset or are annoyed (or both).
This latest one particularly annoys me because it waters down “America” and American goods to a point of insincerity and therefore, it’s insulting, like, “buy a chicken in Hong Kong”: who would! The EFFECT is “counter,” the visual effect is saying, “don’t buy American,” or, “we don’t really support buying American and are insincere political operatives.”
But the obvious “zero”-ing of the graphics is repulsive and whether admitted or not, I do believe reflects a decided subtext of the campaign, as also whoever is designing these creepy images.
Most of us LIKE the Harley logo (very much) — mostly because it’s authentic. A viewer responds with authentic emotion to the authenticity of the logo (and therefore also to the product represented). But imitating ANY popular, well-admired logo is a bad mark against any designer because people notice. They notice, they perceive a fake, they reject the product as fake and in the case of Obama, well they should.
This latest Obama campaign logo is just downright ugly design.
S on August 17, 2008 at 1:45 AM
Haha, and appropriate!
Throw in the flying “0″ and the statement is complete!
S on August 17, 2008 at 1:47 AM
Every time I see that “O” thing with the red-stripey swash through the foreground of it, I think of keratinitis: an eye infection. Then I think of the flu, as in, having a sore throat and feeling really feverish and full of phlegm.
Oh, yeah, like this really induces me to feeling good about a candidate.
S on August 17, 2008 at 1:50 AM
I know how you feel. There’s that “Susan Rice” thing that I have to contend with as do others in my family and circle of friends.
S on August 17, 2008 at 1:51 AM
Barack Obama wants you to buy American but his own brother doesn’t. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4406813.ece
Dollayo on August 17, 2008 at 4:08 AM
I agree, that’s the attempt. And on that retro fling, flop. Too much clutter, ESPECIALLY the ugly belly button and damned fine print at the bottom. Geez, of all things to put off people who actually read, literally using fine print at the bottom of the page is the worst turn off when asking support.
Obama would mail these as stickers so that when Mommy or Daddy open the mail, they have something for the kiddies if not for their car’s bumper or window. Ticky tacky.
maverick muse on August 17, 2008 at 9:24 AM
Although it’s a huge stretch to say that Obama’s latest graphic gaffe might have an REO Speedwagon connection I have to give you major props for bringing up REO Speedwagon at all.
What a great band. Yeah I said it and I mean it. Unparalleled songwriting, heartfelt singing, bigass guitars. REO Speedwagon = ROCKS. These guys, they understood what “hook” meant. Check out Roll With the Changes if you dare to doubt me. The 70’s finest!
Gilda on August 17, 2008 at 9:34 AM
Or a Visine comercial. Ben Stein should do a Youtube “commercial”:
“McCain. Gets the RED out of politics.”
Wethal on August 17, 2008 at 11:41 AM
Ah C’Mon,
McCain made it. Just as McCain started the messiah and the celebrity rumors. ( and of course, Bush and Rove were there)/s
shooter on August 17, 2008 at 1:31 PM
That logo looks more like a Poki Man ball or the Death Star to me…
javamartini on August 17, 2008 at 2:48 PM
More childish nonsense from Obamorons.
marklmail on August 17, 2008 at 3:27 PM
A rip off of the flying A or REO Speedwagon logo?
Anybody with a shred of knowledge of graphic design would laugh at this ridiculous claim.
Next.
Dave Rywall on August 17, 2008 at 11:15 PM
I hope the estate of Gene Autry sues the pants off of 0Bama for copyright infringement.
abcurtis on August 18, 2008 at 7:43 AM
Please everyone; have a look at teh U.S. Army Air Corps Symbol! He is again presenting himself as the Elected President, the Chosen, the Man with History on his side. The Warrior King! If we do not study history we may not even know these things have happened before now.
Dennis227 on August 18, 2008 at 9:31 AM
More stupidity from the stupidest campaign ever. These guys just have more money than they know what to do with and so they keep wasting it on dumb crap like logos and poster art. Clearly a bunch of twenty-something geeks who are busy congratulating themselves on their awesomeness, while the rest of the country says, WTF?
rockmom on August 18, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Just a note: Gene Autry was a “Flying Sargent” in the Army Air Corps. He flew combat missions and the HUMP, in IBC.
Thanks for remembering him, and God Bless all Veterans.
Dennis227 on August 18, 2008 at 11:51 AM
I still think it looks more like Ford’s new grill than anything else.
Jim708 on August 18, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Let’s see,
Appropriates universal symbol as his own — check
Cult of personality — check
Going to speak in large venue to adoring fans — check
Running against respected old guy — check
Makes big promises — check
Can’t reveal true agenda as it’s too extreme — check
Country’s position is diminishing on world stage — check
Father born outside the country — check
He’s got a funny name — check
Don’t want to be an alarmist, but can you say, Heil Obama?
Paul-Cincy on August 18, 2008 at 2:24 PM
News Alert… This just in….
Obama Campaign to release new logo in time for the Olympics closing ceremony.
Logo
AverageJoe on August 18, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Comment pages: « 1 [2]