Companies and products rebrand for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes they want to revitalize a dying brand.
Or stay fresh and modern.
Other times they're trying to put a negative public image in their rear view mirror.
And sometimes, someone somewhere in a company has low impulse control.
Anyway...
Reddit user PulakHasan asked:
"What's the Weirdest Rebranding of all time?"
Weight Watchers
"Weight Watchers abbreviated their name down to 'WW' and in doing so, increased the syllables needed to pronounce their new company name."
~ hambone10
"You burn more calories uttering the extra syllables."
~ jungl3j1m
waitr
"Waitr was an extremely successful delivery service here. They had full time employees and you could get food delivered in 30-45 minutes."
"Then, they made everybody an independent contractor and started calling themselves ASAP."
"'As slow as possible' caught on and they lost the majority market share within a month."
~ bravesgeek
GiphyHBO
"I still don’t understand HBO dropping probably the most prestigious name in cable tv/streaming."
~ stoneman9284
"Right?! Also it literally means Home Box Office - that’s the best name for a streaming service????"
~ oreos_in_milk
Nordic Choice Hotels
"Nordic Choice Hotels rebranded to 'Strawberry'."
"They have to mention their old name all the time, because Strawberry could be absolutely anything."
"If only it were 'Strawberry Hotels' but it's not. It's just Strawberry."
"They removed the part that explains what kind of business it is."
"Madness."
~ WoodSheepClayWheat
GiphyUSWest
"USWest-->Qwest-->CenturyLink-->Lumen I don’t care what your name is."
"Can I have more than 10mbps DSL at my address?"
~ Trickycoolj
"In Europe, and it's now Level3--> Centurylink--> Lumen--> Colt."
"I'm sure they rename in the hope people forget the incompetence."
~ ConsciousValence
"My mom has worked for them since 1977 when they were Northwestern Bell."
"She's been through a billion name changes."
~ CorporalBB
Circuit City IQ Crew
"Circuit City rebranding their PC technician division from IQ Crew (which predated Geek Squad, by the way) to..."
"Firedog."
"I worked at a Circuit City from 2005-2008 and we all thought it was a prank when we saw the announcement."
"'The intensity of fire with the loyalty of man's best friend'."
"I sh*t you not—that was the marketing."
~ Tiberius_Jim
GiphyBritish Petroleum
"When after a major oil spill, BP changed their branding to Beyond Petroleum for an ad campaign showing how they were investing in renewables."
"Logo change too."
~ RandomAmuserNew
"An oil spilled followed by a huge effort to cover it up, including dumping Corexit into the water to mix with the oil and make it sink."
"So it was no longer visible from aerial shots, but it did far, far more damage mixed with a dangerous chemical and sitting on the sea floor than slowly evaporating or being soaked up on the surface."
~ LurkerOrHydralisk
Amoco
"When BP purchased Amoco, they quickly rebranded all the stations to BP."
"Not sure if it is everywhere but Amoco had a lot of brand recognition in the Midwest and a lot of people just didn’t like BP."
"Eventually, they started rebranding some of their stations back to Amoco to cash in on nostalgia."
"I always thought it was dumb but never realized that so many people hated it until after I worked for BP (very briefly) and was told the story of how much pushback they got."
~ anitabelle
British Petroleum (BP Oil)/Paul Sableman
Overstock.com
"Overstock.com I think qualifies for weird rebrand."
"Bed Bath and Beyond went out of business and was bought out by Overstock and then Overstock just rebranded everything to Bed Bath and Beyond."
"If you go to overstock.com it’s just BBB."
~ WhatsABuckland
Snoop Dogg
"When Snoop Dogg (temporarily) changed his name to Snoop Lion to make a reggae album."
~ RomanOnARiver
"Snoop’s original name on Death Row was 'Snoop Doggy Dogg'. When he left Death Row and went to No Limit, he had to alter his name (which might have been his original name) to 'Snoop Dogg'."
~ GotMoFans
"Snoop’s mother used to call him Snoopy as a nickname which is the origin."
~ OpanaMan
"The Charles Schulz people would have had a field day."
~ GotMoFans
GiphyBooks-A-Million
"Books-A-Million to 'BAM'."
"I was in a parking lot with one and had no idea it was a bookstore, as I was a bit too far out to see more than 'BAM' from where I was parked."
~ lynnyfox
KIA
"Everytime I see the new KIA logo I assume its a NIN [Nine Inch Nails] fan."
~ vinyalwhl
"I thought it was KN for an embarrassingly long time."
~ VulfSki
"KIA changed their logo on their cars and Google showed an uptick in the searches for 'K N cars' because people liked the look of them but didn’t realise it was a KIA."
~ User_Deleted_Content
Mark Chan on Unsplash
Royal Mail
"Royal Mail deciding Consignia was the way to go forwards."
~ PonITdude
"They wanted to go international but they lost so much money that year they had to stay national and reversed the name back."
~ ShinyHead0
"Twitter to X."
~ sandiercy
"And then everyone still refers to it as Twitter."
~ Safety_Drance
"'A user on X, formerly known as Twitter, posted…'.”
~ tommyk1210
"Rather like to see 'A user on Twitter, erroneously known as X, posted...'."
~ SagittaryX
"'A user on twitter, largely unknown as X, posted...'."
~ Pinksters
"A few days ago, I saw an article that said 'Twitter, which Elon Musk incorrectly thinks is called X for some reason...'."
"That was pretty funny."
~ temalyen
GiphyCity Landmarks
"In Chicago we still call it the Sears Tower [renamed Willis Tower in 2009]."
~ baccus83
"And in Pittsburgh, it’s still Heinz Field [renamed Acrisure Stadium in 2022]."
~ NoVaBurgher
"And in Toronto, it’s still the Skydome [renamed Rogers Centre in 2005]."
~ nonanarchist
"And in New York when you take 287 across the Hudson it's still the Tappan Zee Bridge [renamed Governor Mario M. Cuomo Bridge in 2017]. "
~ keytarin
"A lot of LA people still call it Staples Center [renamed Crypto.com Arena in 2021]."
~ New_Simple_4531
"In Denver we will always say Mile High Stadium [renamed Empower Field at Mile High in 2019]."
~ SheBrokeHerCoccyx
Some rebrandings make perfect sense to the public.
Others are utterly baffling.
What would you add to this list?
Reddit user onlyahippowilldo asked:
"What's the dumbest corporate rebranding?"
Who Are You?
"Ditching the name 'HBO' is certainly a decision."
~ 44035
"And now they're releasing HBO originals on Netflix. It's like they're literally destroying a household name that was the only thing going for them."
~ esoteric_enigma
"HBO Go -> HBO Max -> Max"
~ nthroop1
"I loved how Peacock responded with a statement not to get excited, they weren't doing that."
~ Ok-Cheetah-9125
"Haha, had to look it up and sure enough:"
~ fixedtypo
Then Whose Is It?
"Not really a rebrand, but when Oldsmobile went to the 'This is not your father's Oldsmobile' campaign, they basically alienated the only group of people who actually were buying Oldsmobiles at the time.
"And now, nobody is buying Oldsmobiles."
~ jpiro
So, Where Is It?
"The University of Western Sydney just recently spent millions of dollars to rebrand to Western Sydney University."
~ Orion2200
"The Canadian version of this is when The University of Western Ontario spent a bazillion dollars rebranding to Western University."
~ VonVilhelmVilhelm
"What’s western about it? It’s not in the west of Ontario."
~ theducks
"That’s easy. It’s west of the centre of the universe (Toronto). It doesn’t matter that it’s eastern canada and eastern Ontario."
~ skippy2893
"I thought I heard that even after they did this, they're still legally called University of Western Ontario in an official capacity."
"So what was even the point?"
~ aureentuluva1
GiphyJuicy Details
"Tropicana; removing the famous red-white straw directly into the orange imagery for...an unbranded clear glass of orange juice in a generic-looking (white-labeled-looking) package."
~ KBeeFree
"They lost $65 Million! They spent $30 Million on the rebrand and lost $35 Million in sales."
~ Wearesyke
When Your Office Logo Is NSFW
"The former UK Office of Government Commerce, which spent £70k on a logo redesign circa 2008."
"The logo was the initials OGC, which when turned 90° looks like a guy having a wank."
"The best part of that fiasco was the response of a spokesman."
"'It is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on Government spend'."
"firm grip"
~ MonseigneurChocolat
GiphyIf You Don't Know By Now...
"It’s been years since Angie’s List was rebranded to Angi and they’re still running ads that clarify who they are based on the old name."
"Great work, everyone."
~ patopatogris
"I haven't heard anyone explain the rebranding, but I strongly suspect that morons were confusing them with Emily's List and assuming they were a pro-choice group."
~ Cultural-Company282
Laser Kiwi!
"New Zealand spent 26 million on a new flag and then it lost to the old one in a vote."
~ thorpie88
"The insane thing is... They. Didn't. Hire."
"They crowd sourced. I sh*t you not."
~ davetenhave
"Did it actually cost millions then?"
~ sbenfsonw
"The design of the flags no, but the referendum to ask the populace if they want the new flag did."
~ confused_yelling
@ThompsonLars/Twitter
The Jokes Write Themselves
"The parcel delivery company Hermes which became Evri."
"Now Evri parcel is lost."
~ AHat29
"I used to have a subscription with a company that used Hermes, I had two parcels that hadn't shown up in the same month so I requested new ones, these too didn't arrive so I cancelled the order completed."
"A few months later they were back in touch to offer me a new deal, I declined and when pushed said they had a new courier; the 'new' courier was Evri..."
~ E17AmateurChef
THAT Pat
"ABC Family to Freeform. I never understood."
~ Kai-Tlyn
"That particular cable channel has probably rebranded more than any other:- Christian Broadcasting Network
- CBN Family Channel
- The Family Channel
- Fox Family
- ABC Family
- Freeform"
"They’ve been trying to distance themselves from Pat Robertson’s (yes, THAT Pat Robertson from 700 Club) who owns a significant portion of the network."
"They are legally required under a long standing contract to play Christian Broadcasting Network content. It’s a good way to not have the ABC/Disney brand connected to that religious content."
~ jimb575
GiphyNew Name, Same Great Service
"Comcast -> XFinity"
"I was involved in some of the meetings for that as a outside contractor. It was the dumbest move ever."
"90% of the people involved knew it was dumb, but a handful or morons at the top really thought Comcast's bad reputation would just magically disappear with the rebrand."
~ woogychuck
"I was a third party contractor who would sometimes get contracted out troubleshoot or install Comcast internet or cable."
"It was right around the time of the rebranding and let me tell you, it confused the hell out of every single person."
"The consumers, the techs, the bosses, nobody knew what to call anything for a while."
~ IWearBones138__
"I can't imagine what it was like as contractor."
"One of the websites my company was hired to build was intended to convince contractors to pay to have their own vans painted to match the new branding."
"When we told Comcast/Xfinity marketing folks that literally no contractor was going to willingly spend $3-6k to rebrand their vehicles, they acted like we were crazy."
"They geniuinely thought installation and repair contractors we be so excited about the 'earning potential' of the rebrand that they would spend thousands to do it. We fortunately lost the project to another company."
"They were seriously disconnected with reality."
~ woogychuck
"A marketing department disconnected with reality‽‽ No way!"
~ chapswithnocaps
GiphyNot Comic Sands?
"In 2010 the Gap paid an ad agency a bajillion dollars to rebrand. They came up with the name typed in Arial (Helvetica?) font.
"The Gap announced the rebrand. They were roundly mocked for spending a gorillion dollars on something that it takes two seconds for anyone to create."
"They decided to just continue using the old logo. The rebrand lasted six days."
~ VonAether
"'We believe this is a more contemporary, modern expression. The only nod to the past is that there’s still a blue box, but it looks forward'."
"It always cracks me up hearing big market whiz guys trying to explain the most mundane, boring attempt at innovation."
"Not a single consumer in the world is going to look at the Gap logo and thinking that."
~ IWearBones138__
And the Winner (loser) Is...
"Twitter to X"
~ squid1891
"This is the answer. Twitter had a brand name so recognizable, it became a literal verb that was widely used in the cultural lexicon."
"Sure, Facebook had posts and statuses, instagram had stories, but the word 'tweet' is synonymous with and unique to Twitter."
"Companies spend millions on marketing to try and get something to catch on and stick like that, it’s like striking gold, any marketing exec would kill for it."
"Baby Huey Elon threw it in the trash like it was yesterday’s news for literally the most generic, garbage branding imaginable."
"It’s stranger than fiction."
~ aveganrepairs
"Now instead of tweets we have 'excretions'."
~ Bikrdude
"On an app called X(sh)itter."
~ bobjoylove
"Cue clip of Uncle Eddie emptying his RV septic system. 'Xitter's full!'."
~ Jesus_Is_My_Gardener
"Xitler"
~ valeyard89
GiphyCompanies—and countries—have various reasons for wanting a rebrand.
When it works, the results can be phenomenal.
But when it flops, no one will ever let you forget it.
Giphy
Redditor istrx13 wanted to discuss the products that went nowhere, so they asked:
"What product was supposed to be the next big thing but wound up failing miserably?"
Life is all hit or miss.
Especially when inventing.
Transport Revolution
"The Segway was once touted as a revolutionary transportation device, but ultimately failed to live up to its hype due to its high cost, limited practicality, and safety concerns."
fulfillmen25
Drunk Fried Chicken GIF by Ethan BarnowskyGiphyShattered
"Google Glass."
doublebankshot
"I dropped I think it was $1400 on it back then, and when I got them it was immediately obvious that they were going to be a huge disappointment; everything from UI to battery life to comfort to photo quality was so bad that my first impression was that they felt almost like a joke product rather than an actual product manufactured by a tech company, not even an early developer version."
ds445
A great idea...
"Zune was supposed to be the death of Apple's monopoly on MP3 players."
HoopOnPoop
"Zune actually wasn't a bad piece of hardware. It was just that by the time it came out, iPod was already entrenched. It was around the same price, so it couldn't undercut Apple on pricing. ZunePass was actually a pretty great idea, years before Spotify."
Wulfbak
"My favorite thing about Zune is that it featured what was actually a pretty cool and interesting design feature wherein a user could send a song to another Zune user for free, but Microsoft chose the single worst possible name for this feature, calling it 'squirting.' Zune kids back in the day had to be like 'Ayyy bro that song is fire, squirt that at me.'"
HostileSkittles
Fly High
"Hoverboards. I think their primary problem was their lack of ability to hover. Also 300 ish dollars for something that goes as fast as... legs is just dumb."
IceClimbers_Main
"Their main downfall was the many, many cheap and dangerous clones from china. When the OG hoverboards were too expensive for most, the big Chinese companies saw a hole to get into the market making them for pennies on the dollar by removing safety devices, using cheaper batteries, lower gauge wire, etc. It was for the worst."
ptthree420
Entertainment Options
"Curved TVs… oh and 3D TVs we’re a thing for a while too!"
Sherlockssocks
"I own a curved 3D TV. I've probably used the 3D less than a hundred times. I think if they'd pushed the spilt screen gaming thing a bit more they would have sold more."
Signal-Morning7669
Shake Your Rump Television GIF by Beastie BoysGiphyThose curved TVs freak me out.
I just liked my DVD
"Laser discs...? I think they were called. Picture a DVD the size of a record."
Drawn-Otterix
"Laserdiscs were successful, they're just an obsolete format now."
Born_Anteater_3495
digital audio spinning GIF by Feliks Tomasz KonczakowskiGiphyCleansed
"Olestra/Olean. It was going to transform all junk food into low fat. Instead, it transformed lower GI tracts."
1800sMan
"OMG this! Around 1998 I worked for a huge ad agency on Madison Ave in NYC that had the Pringles account. They were pushing that Olestra trash at the time and obvi it was to be part of the campaign we were creating. One day I grab a can and start munching away."
"Well 15 minutes later I feel like I’ve swallowed a hand grenade and start racing to the bathroom where I proceed to destroy the bathroom for a good half hour. It just would not stop. I swear I saw a demon that day while emptying my poor bowels. Never ever again with that Olestra garbage."
bruh_wut69
Guess What?
"Oh man this is really specific to my career field in childcare."
"Smart diapers. Yep, diapers that will inform you on your app when your child uses them. I don’t know anyone who seriously considered getting these. But I remember seeing ads on my social media for them. Guess what? No one wanted them."
Onlyfansnanny
"As a law student, my son worked on getting the patent and prototype on these a little over ten years ago. At the time, however, they were being marketed to nursing homes. IDK whatever happened with that."
Ok-Bee1579
The Mess
"Meta."
SuperScario
"I finally decided to look up what meta was on Youtube a few months ago and I swear I thought I was watching some Nintendo wii game or something. My jaw hit the floor when I realized that's what meta actually looked like, billions of dollars for a Nintendo looking world, what a f**king dumpster fire."
twister55555
Bute Sized
"Quibi."
chyna094e
"Part of it was the worst timing imaginable. The service was meant to be 'bite sized' entertainment, something you could watch in 5 minutes while standing in a queue or maybe a couple segments on a public transit ride."
"They launched the first week of April 2020. Remember all the queues you were standing in and public transit rides you took then? Yeah, the same as everyone else - NONE because 95% of the population was stuck at home for 6 months!"
alinroc
Minis...
"Spore. It was hyped as a game that went from spark of life to galactic conquest. It's just a bunch of mini games."
rosanymphae
College Hoops Sport GIF by NCAA March MadnessGiphyI missed the spore phenomenon.
Oh well.
"What’s something extremely overrated that people buy anyways?"
The Mermaid Draws Them In...
"My boyfriend might kill me for this because he's a fanatic, but...Starbucks coffee."
"Overrated but extremely successful."
"Probably the factor of convenience and now sentiment with holiday traditions but....I've found many other places where the coffee is just genuinely so much better."- AriesRN
Loop Starbucks GIF by FrappuccinoAll Shoes Wear Out Eventually...
"Those new release Nikes."
"They’ve never been all that to me."- TraditionalLet3934
"Shoes."
"Sneaker-heads baffle me, who is spending $150+ on shoes you won’t even wear outside?"
"Makes no sense."- bbbhhioiii
"Yeezys (was the answer several months ago) and Jordans."- Particular-Topic-445
shoes destroy GIF by MuchGiphyHow Often Do You Actually Wear Them?
"Expensive diamonds and jewelry."- Back2Bach
Bad For You AND Expensive...
"As a smoker trying to quit, cigarettes."
"Yes, I know they're awful. I am trying."
"But srsly, Marlboros are near $10 a pack."
"There are people smoking 3, 4 packs a day."
"$40 x 7 = $280 a week."
"That's $14,560 a year."
"On smokes."
"Vaping is just as bad."- Expensive_Rhubarb_87
Ultimately Can't Fill The Void
"Subscriptions to twitch girls."- Few-Illustrator-5333
If You Need To Get Them Insured, Best To Look For Other Hobbies...
"Video game insurance."- DarkMagician-999
You Can Get It From A Tap, For Free...
"Bottle water."- MathCrank
fun pop GIF by PrimarkUltimately, It's One Person's Opinion...
"Self-help books written by people who have only had success by writing self-help books."- Longbowed
It's How They Draw You In...
"Anything in a free-to-play game."
"Looking at you fornite people."- TheSuperDK
Some Traditions Need To Die...
"Husbands."
"In India."
"With dowry."- Gloomy_Tangerine3123
It's easy to jump on the bandwagon and buy something because "everyone else is buying it."
But just because something is popular doesn't always make it good, forcing you to decide which is more important: fitting in or standing out?
What would you add to this list? Let us know in the comments below.