Commentary

TV Brand Transformations Mean Busy Logos -- Sometimes With Feathers

As a media company, how "busy" are you? Logo-wise, that is.

Comcast Corp. took the iconic rainbow-laden peacock off NBCUniversal’s logo when it became major owner in January 2011. Senior executive Steve Burke said the logo and the peacock were "too busy."

But apparently not that busy for Comcast.

In preparation for Comcast’s 50th anniversary, the company is bringing back the peacock for its corporate logo. The familiar colorful bird graphic will sit right atop the Comcast name, which will get a thinner, gentler-looking font than its current incarnation.

Gone will be the red crescent that encircled the "C" in Comcast’s name, which was part of the big cable operator’s long-time logo. Is the message that Comcast is now a lot more than a single color?

Of course, it doesn't hurt that NBC is riding the wave as the top broadcast network so far this season -- up 23% to an average 3.2 rating among 18-49ers. "Sunday Night Football" is a big factor in NBC's climb.  (Perhaps Comcast should add the NFL logo as well?)

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Taking away NBC's peacock, which had been used since 1956, was, for some, like taking away the soul and history of the network.

Any new media-branding images should send the right messages to business partners and consumers. Having a peacock seems to offer one message; a darker hawk might say something else. Perhaps another network will go for a quieter and watchful owl.

In that vein, do you perhaps wonder why Fox doesn't do the obvious, and use a fox? ABC? CBS? What animals could be associated with these networks?  Maybe not an animal, but a flower, landscape or seascape.

Cable networks go a different route, as many of their names say plenty -- or at least something specific: Discovery, Comedy Central, History, E! Entertainment, Universal Sports, for example.

We don't need any extra graphics here. No feathers. Not even an entire programming rainbow.

2 comments about "TV Brand Transformations Mean Busy Logos -- Sometimes With Feathers".
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  1. Michael Seckington from NewsUSA, December 12, 2012 at 3:08 p.m.

    How quaintly bound to images the television networks are! Wireless networks have developed identities based upon color alone. Sprint is yellow. Verizon is red. T-Mobile identifies as hot pink, and Cingular is orange.

    Attorneys at Firefox might have something to say before the "fair and balanced" network uses a fox as a corporate logo.

  2. Nicholas Schiavone from Nicholas P. Schiavone, LLC, December 13, 2012 at 12:26 a.m.

    To say "taking away NBC's peacock, which had been used since 1956, was, for some, like taking away the soul and history of the network" is utter nonsense or a description of poor fools. The Soul of which you write was lost through Faustian bargains that should never have been made and The History to which you refer can only be ignored, never erased. Listen carefully: There is a profound difference between a BRAND and a Brand Mark. Success depends on more than a pleasing Brand Mark (or logo). Remember the rhetorical expression "lipstick on a pig"? One must really feel sorry for the pig. Not the "monsters" that used make-up to fool themselves and others about the real nature of things. Nuff said.

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