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
In my medium of art (film/tv/theatre/literature) the hype/flop game is the norm more times than we care to admit. Sending art to the masses is always a gamble. And every gamble has a loser.
I'll do Diet!
90s 1990s GIF by PepsiGiphy"Crystal Pepsi."
- cujokila
"Crystal Pepsi taught me that everything is a lie. If they can make Pepsi clear or whatever color they want, then what other lies have I been led to believe?"
'the thing'
"When the Segway came out I remember an expert on Good Morning America saying that they would design cities around it in the future, instead of cars. Before it was called a Segway it was referred to as 'the thing' and new information about it was treated like freaking nuclear codes."
It's a Negative....
"Google+. It stayed in invitation only phase for way too long. By the time it was open to everyone, people forgot about it and it flopped."
"They also forced you to use it if you had any other kind of google account so people naturally resisted it. What they didn't understand is that people use other social media websites if they have something unique to offer. Unfortunately now it seems like every social media site is copycatting each other."
- antivn
3D
"I still remember 3D TVs were supposed to be the next "technological leap" or something. Even the World Cup was broadcasted in 3D. Then it just died out."
"Not just TV, but that era where every movie had a 3D version in theatres. As someone who wore glasses and is nearsighted, I was never able to watch them."
Cats GIF by Kitty Is Not A CatYeah I gave up on cat toys early on, and dog toys. My dogs have never really been into stuffed animals, or squeaky balls. Thank God. And I always thought the Segway was weird and unstable.
Bad Moves
Taylor Kitsch What GIFGiphy"The Nivelle Offensive It was hyped to win WW1 for France in 48 hours. Instead it was so bad that it started a mutiny, got Nivelle fired, and had casualty numbers an order of magnitude higher than expected."
Bad Diet
"Atkins diet-esque food items at fast food restaurants in like 2008 or whatever it was. They came and they went like the wind I remember KFC tried to get in the game at the time by claiming their chicken was healthy because it was low in carbs. That went down like a lead balloon."
Senseless...
"Juicero. The ultimate culmination of unicorn companies that make no sense."
"It was partially bankrolled by GOOGLE and I heard that people speculated that the DRM thing it had was so Google could harvest user data. That's gotta be the dumbest way to do that ever why would Google care about people's organic glorified juice box preferences."
"Ooooh. When I read that word, it rang a bell so I looked it up. I remember seeing advertisements for that thing. I think I remember seeing a video of someone opening up their packets and showing it was just... A mush. That you pressed to get a drink out of."
Not so Slender...
"The 2018 Slender Man movie... I remember before it came out it had like a 92% want to see on rotten tomatoes after it came out it got a 17% liked it."
"Honestly the movie shouldn't have been PG13. An R rating (which as far as I know was actually the original focus) would've been much better, as then the movie would've been more like the creepypasta and not like a child's fanfiction. It sucks the R rating was cut but "wOUlD sOMeOnE tHiNK oF tHE ChIlDrEN?????????????"
Foreigners Explain Which Parts Of American Culture Seem Strange | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
America, land of the free... and oversized portions and cars. That's how the saying goes, right? There are some baffling quirks about the United States. That...The Hunt
geraldo rivera man GIF by South Park Giphy"Geraldo Rivera's special Mystery of Al Capone's vault in the 1980s. 💩"
He Lies
"That David Copperfield special where he "made the statue of liberty disappear." Forget that crap."
"The one thing I'll never forget from that: they interviewed some older women and she said, "I've never seen a Statue of Liberty disappear like that one did!"
"If I remember correctly, the camera and the bleachers with the audience were on a stabilized platform. They just trucked both a few feet to the side until the statue was out of camera shot, then pulled back the curtain."
Universal Fail
"The dark universe (the mummy)."
"I saw that movie with absolutely no idea they were trying to start this off and was so frigging confused when Dr Jekyll turns up out of nowhere for no reason."
"The cast that did that photo shoot before they even had one successful film is pretty cringe to see. The marketing for the failed universe is more entertaining than the actual movies."
Bad Pitch
"Ouya."
"To this day I cannot believe it even got that much hype and money during the kickstarter campaign. Even in the initial pitch it didn't seem that impressive or interesting so thankfully, I decided to wait until it was out. Never ended up buying one, obviously."
coke cola dancing GIFLet me see...
"I remember google glasses were supposed to be the next big thing but let me tell you I haven't seen a single pair out in the wild."
"I think Google got a big whiff of the vast majority of the population being really mad that people could film with the glasses without anyone ever knowing. I think it scared them off. People did not want this, and there were many people who seemed ready to fight people who wore these glasses."
Keep your baby...
"TY beanie babies. Everyone thought they were going to be rich when I was in high school."
- NXTsec
"I put a new coat of some all-weather sealant on this lady's playground set for her little kids. I was 13, it was summer, got, and she asked my dad if I could help her out. 6 hours later, she pays me with one single beanie baby. "This is gonna be worth a lot of money one day. Your afternoon of work has made you rich as an adult." Freaking bullcrap."
- boydboyd
"Is anything happening?"
"The end of the world in 2012."
"My cousin texted my the day that we were all supposed to die. She said "is anything happening?" And I was like "what do you mean? No. Nothing is happening" she really said "oh, well you live in a time zone ahead of us by 2 hours. I thought stuff would happen over there on the east coast first." I freaking died. The thought of the world imploding on itself but still following time zones is fantastic."
Disaster
"Quibi. That streaming service with nothing over 10 minutes. Launched about 3 weeks after the world shutdown."
"Did anyone other than the company hype up Quibi? That thing had disaster written all over it the moment it was announced and everyone seemed in agreement about that."
- MumrikDK
Oh Garth
Country Music 2018 Cmas GIF by CMA AwardsGiphy"In the life of Chris Gaines. The project where Garth Brooks created a grunge icon that would premiere in a movie."
Flames
"Fyre Festival is the ultimate "hyped but flopped". It's a cautionary tale of what NOT to do when organizing and/or promoting something."
"It's really just a cautionary tale not to scam people. It's organization and promotion worked totally efficiently, but it was a scam from start to end. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked and we wouldn't be talking about it today."
Well on paper they all sounded like good ideas. Maybe the issue lies in the execution. Try again perhaps? Except Slender Man and Geraldo. No, just no.
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I for one am tired of heading about how fitness releases endorphins, therefore I'll super happy and thrilled once I'm on a treadmill. I have never enjoyed one second on a treadmill. So Beach Body... you can shove it!
Avoidance
Friends Moving GIFGiphy"That fat is the thing to avoid in foods taking away the spotlight from sugar."
Not so rare...
"De Beers diamond campaign. Idk if propaganda, but was the best advertising campaign of all time."
- HuntStag
"Diamonds can actually burn with enough oxygen and heat. They also degrade back to graphite on their own (over a billion years, but still) or much more rapidly if the proper energy source is used (say a high energy laser). The real propaganda is that diamonds are very rare. They are not, just highly controlled by De Beers, who are known to buy any competing mines. Of all the precious stones, diamonds are the most common."
Fused...
"The McDonald's coffee lawsuit. The lawyers made it out to be frivolous but the lady just wanted her medical bills payed after the coffee was so hot (they overheated it so people would go for less free refills) that she burned her lap and had her labia fused to her thighs."
- calvanus
An Error
"Not wartime propaganda. A notational error. "As the story goes, in 1870, a German chemist named Erich von Wolf was researching the nutritional benefits of spinach. In his notes, he accidentally printed the decimal point in the vegetable's iron content in the wrong spot. Wolf accidentally increased the vegetable's iron level to 10 times the actual amount — 3.5 grams of iron suddenly became 35 grams, an extremely high amount of iron."
Just for Bugs...
bugs bunny wtf GIF by Looney TunesGiphy"Myth of carrots being good for eyesight coming from WW2 to hide RAF victories against the german flyers coming from the use of radar."
"It's a myth but it's still true. Carrots are high in lutein and beta carotene which are both good for eye health…"
I've always loved carrots just because I love them. My eyesight is good but I think that's thanks to God. And I have always found McDonald's coffee to be lukewarm at best. So no lawsuit for me.
Worry Now!
Climate Change Earth GIF by GIPHY Studios OriginalsGiphy"Small personal changes will prevent climate change. Until things change at the industrial and corporate level the planet is screwed."
The War
"Vietnam was probably one of the most successful ones."
"I remember reading this comment once, that really pointed out how weird the Vietnam War was handled post-war by the U.S. I don't remember it exactly, but it went something along the lines of:"
"It's strange that we invaded Vietnam and decades later we now make movies about how sad soldiers were while invading and killing the Vietnamese. It's the equivalent of a burglar making a film about how sad they are breaking into someone's home and beating them up."
Reuse...
"Recycling plastics. Something like only 9-10% of recycled plastic is actually… recycled. Plastics that we all recycle are sent to a recycling center where they are melded/smashed into big cubes. Plastic using companies, say Coca Cola, have to then buy these cubes to use for their bottling."
"It typically is more labor intensive and expensive to use these recycled cubes than to just use new plastic. Therefore, after some time, these cubes are discarded by recycling companies just like normal trash is. Big oil pushed recycling propaganda HARD to make people feel better about using plastics when they switched over from glass."
Anne & Jane
"Pretty much anything about Anne Boleyn and Jane Seymour. All historical evidence shows Anne as a sweet, kind, generous woman who genuinely loved Henry (they were together for around a decade), whilst all contemporary accounts show Jane to be nasty, conniving and abusive to her maids."
"Anne's reputation was initially smeared because Henry's advisors disliked how much money (that they wanted spent on them/their projects) she gave to charity. They started a mass smear campaign, and executed her based on trumped up charges that most historians agree were utterly false. The propaganda continued after her execution to ensure that Henry didn't look bad."
"Jane Seymour only has a positive reputation because she was paraded around as a sort of angelic type, in large part to justify Henry's relationship with her to the public (who contrary to popular fiction, were fond of Anne due to her charity and advocacy work) so as to prevent unrest. This reputation continued after her death and was intentionally emphasised to further enhance/legitimise Edward's claim over Mary and Elizabeth's."
The Best 'Actually, You're Speaking To The Boss' Experience | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Being a Bruncher
Gay Want GIFGiphy"Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Nice little marketing campaign by major breakfast food manufacturers to increase sales."
- llcucf80
The Real Succubus...
"I'm gonna pick out a much less recent one than a lot of people... hey, turns out Cleopatra was actually pretty average-looking! What she WAS was a really intelligent and sharp political operator who terrified the Romans. They ran a very good smear campaign, painting her as a succubus to disguise that."
Not so Rare
"Diamonds are forever. super successful commercial, made it the go-to engagement stone. Die ewige Juden - spreading anti jewish propaganda for maybe a decade has inflamed hatred/violence in he mid east to this day. It wasn't a picnic before, but it's gotten a lot worse."
"Diamonds also are not even rare, the whole industry is just manufactured scarcity."
Saturday Night Live Nbc GIF by HULUBeautiful...
"Keep America beautiful" still has people believing that it's the job of the end consumer to clean up "littered waste" instead of forcing companies to stop high waste practices for higher profits."
"Recycling of plastic was devised as a way to take the burden of the environment impact of the plastic industry and put in on the consumer. When in reality, we should just not be using single-use plastic for most things."
"bankrupt"
"Installing universal healthcare in America will "bankrupt" the country. Several countries have, successfully, had some form of a universal healthcare system for over a century and their economies aren't hurting b/c of it."
Lost Cause...
"Lost Cause mythology convinced 5 generations that the dirty traitors fighting to enslave children were the GOOD GUYS."
"The worst part of Lost Cause revisionism is that the Confederate leaders thoroughly documented why they seceded. It was so overwhelmingly about slavery that they couldn't shut up about how much it was about slavery."
- CHIM_Jim
Shot Up
President Biden Politics GIF by NowThisGiphy"That vaccines cause autism and other harm. Not everyone believes, but those that do will die (literally) on that hill."
We really will believe anything. Won't we? Or maybe that's what we're manipulated to believe? Who knows.
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