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Comment by ArekDymalski | Hacker News Reader

"There is no excuse for not testing something as significant as a new logo on a large, global audience"

There is one excuse. When you are small it makes more sense to ship something and fix it later, than invest time and money in surveying everything. Especially if your "market research " won't be done on a property representative group anyway.

Edit: it's an interesting read though.

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According to their data, only 2.6% of Brits thought the logo looked like underwear, anyway. It's OK if a small proportion of your users think your logo looks stupid. Obviously, it's nice to avoid it, but this is hardly the disaster that's implied by "there is no excuse."

What's odd is in the first tweet they show their logo really does look like underpants. But, the logo is different in the next 2 images. It's rotated 180 deg. After it's rotated it really doesn't look like underpants.

Reminds me of the reaction to Apple's naming of the iPad. Like, "My Tampon?" Ha-Ha-Ha. Big huge deal. Surely they'll rename it. What a horrible name.

But now it doesn't occur to anyone to make that association.

Great example. I recall seeing a lot of people saying things like that at the time. Doesn't seem to have had any consequences.

I was one of the people lampooning Nintendo for the Wii. "Wee" being a very common britishism for "pee".

(e.g. "I want a wii in the corner of my living room!" fnar fnar.)

I figured they'd change it before launch. The joke was stared down by the brand, and the brand won. What do I know?

When the Washington NBA team changed from the Bullets to the Wizards, a common potential problem brought up was that people would call them the Wiz (similar connotation to wee).

The MLS team in Kansas City was initially (in 1996) actually named the 'Kansas City Wiz.' It was later changed to Wizards (and later still totally renamed after changing ownership hands). Their games against the (also since renamed) Dallas Burn generated a lot of childish jokes, as you might expect.

Ah, the amplifying effect of Twitter.

That's actually the problem we're working to solve at Survata: fast, reliable, and affordable market research.

Like Nike for instance!

Does their logo mean something in some part of the world?

I don't suppose so. But it was not tested on any group whatsoever. At least according to the urban legend. It was dashed off by a designer for $50 and became a worldwide phenomenon.

Conversely, Nike is also responsible for the infamous "Allah/Air shoes" that caused a shitstorm in the late 90s.

For those wondering:

> What makes the Nike Air Bakin’ such a sizzling story is the controversy that arose from the fiery logo on the heel; it was the word ‘Air’ designed in a fiery motif, but backlash from the Muslim community for its slight resemblance to ‘Allah’ in Arabic text forced Nike to recall the shoes and re-release with a basic Nike Air logo.

http://sneakernews.com/2012/09/28/classics-revisited-nike-ai...

The rest of the marketing was on point as well, which led to the worldwide phenomenon. Just do it is a powerful phrase. Its short, distinct, and appeals to a our basic instincts. Its was a meme before we were inudated with memes.

Here in Poland many people call it an "ice-skate". Nike doesn't seem to be much excited about it. People always have some associations and are eager to make some jokes to impress others with their wit. It's inevitable.

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