Dan Taylor

Looks like Wal-Mart Walmart kinda screwed the pooch on their new logo unveil.  Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal beat Walmart’s PR team to releasing the news of a logo/brand redesign.  The Journal was tipped off by the Memphis and Shelby County of Development who had received documents from Walmart with the intention of opening a prototype store there. An artists rendering on those documents showed a new sign over the facade of the proposed store.

Walmart released a ‘d’oh we effed up’ press release siting in some rather vague language that simply offers up:

But what really matters is what happens out there in the stores. This update to the logo is simply a reflection of the refresh taking place inside our stores and our renewed sense of purpose to help people save money so they can live better.

Ummm.

Brent sent this intial article over from underconsideration.com, with the comment, “Read the first two comments”.  All I can say is…effing brilliant.  Walmart probably paid Lippincott a small fortune to research, test, design, redesign, retest, and finally approve this new design.  Did NO ONE in the test group or even the design staff take a good look at this logo and think “WTF?”  Ok, sphincter might be a bit of a reach, but the minute Dante mentions it, you look at that logo again and think…ya know…he’s kinda right.

So what is the message that Walmart is trying to convey here?  As underconsideration mentions, the starburst is a bit more akin to a start up and/or a telecommunications company.  I personally don’t make any correlation of any kind between Walmart and the sun, sunflowers, stars, or starbursts.

However, when someone mentions, “Oy…that’s looks like a sphincter!” my mind immediatly jumps to the conclusion, “Walmart – Screwing customers and employees in the sphincter since 1962″.  Or perhaps, “Hello welcome to Walmart.  I’m taking it up the @$$ from these f#(&ers ’cause there ain’t nothin’ better in town”.

Some other top comments on underconsideration’s article include:

• I was hoping when I read this that it was april fools day…guess not disappointing Lippincott (if it is the case, say it aint so).
• OMG, IT’S SO F-ING HUGE!!!  What the hell is up with that giant asterisk?
• It’s like a ring of golden cannons, all aimed at small-town America.  The blue, of course, represents the depression Wal-Mart employees cannot afford to medicate.
• People seem hung up on the yellow mark. It is ugly, but my suspicion is that it was born of Target-envy.
• It would appear that Walmart has discovered their inner Target.  That said, I’d rather be the brand with the bulls-eye and not the butt hole.

Underconsideration.com also provided an interesting graphic of the development of the Walmart logo.

For the whole story, go give ‘em a visit.