Will Obama rebrand the Presidency?
Well a lot of people were hoping for an Obama victory (including, on occasion myself), and it looks like they got their wish. Obama obliterated his rival John McCain, through what is undoubtedly the most expensive largest and most well managed presidential campaign in American history.
What many are wondering though, is since his campaign was so marketing based, can Obama live up to the hype? Others have asked, since the campaign was so well managed, will the presidency be as well?
Well it seems that we already have some indication, after only a couple of days since Obama became ‘President Elect’, there is already ‘Change’ afoot, albeit in website form, it seems Obama’s campaign team has not abandoned him now he’s won the contest, and the slick design aspect of Obama’s approach continues. His team, now called the ‘Obama-Biden Transition Project’ has set up a website that may point the way forward to how he’ll manage the presidency, Change.gov
This website, seemingly as well designed as his original BarackObama.com site, sets out what Obama plans to do and continues several aspects of that site, including a blog. Now the last person I want to sound like is the guy who told John Oliver that it was incredibly important that the next president be able to use Flickr and Twitter. But online seems to herald the most changes, at least in the short term.
It seems that was for the best that I wasn’t addicted to Obama’s social presence, (at least for the moment), since Obama’s twitter has been dormant ever since he (or once of his staffers) thanked those who helped “make history” on the 5th, and Obama’s flickr was last updated on the 6th with photos of Obama with family of before and during Obama’s victory, and later speech. From the looks of it, these were used simply campaign tools to gather support from an internet savvy audience, and there is no sign of those earlier tools (apart from that blog) on the President Elect’s new site.
Does this abandonment of internet tools mean that when Obama becomes president, even this blog and site will go? Or should we see the Change site as a sign of something more?
I mentioned earlier the slick design that the original BarackObama.com site and the Change.gov site both share, however I don’t know much about how much power the President gets over their identity or that of the white house, but I would bet that if Obama’s team could change it, they would. This from the team that caused such a raucous by giving Obama a seal before he was even elected (see image above).
Will Obama rebrand the Presidency? And will his online efforts change politics forever? I don’t know, but there’s always the… hope.
BBC News refreshes its look, and brand.
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The BBC has once again done a half million pound ($1 Million) renovation to their News division, changing and reinforcing their brand, and changing their look.
The BBC keeps refreshing their look based on the same basic idea that was concocted back in 1999, the beaming radio waves, spinning globes and the moving words. Oh the moving words.
So now, the BBC, asking for ‘Simplicity’ Lambie Nairn has provided the same answer as the designers of Special K did, plenty of white space to differentiate the product. As for the globe, instead of emitting radio waves, it is made of them.
The Telegraph seeks attention by saying the new look is nauseating, I wouldn’t go that far, but I don’t exactly like the new look. I would agree the look was a bit stale, but the new versions seem a bit strange.
What I do like is the brand changes. If you ever found yourself calling the BBC’s 24 hour news network ‘News 24′, or calling their 10pm News bulletin “The Ten O’Clock News’ the BBC wants to get rid of your kind. How? ‘BBC News 24′ is now called just ‘BBC News’, (which it should have been called all along) ‘24′ never matched the BBC’s other 4 numbered channels, so it makes sense to just call a spade a spade.
There is one problem however, being that nobody at the BBC knows what to call it. Is it BBC News, or the BBC News Channel? The website seems to be the centre of this confusion, and the word ‘channel’ reminds me of the ill fated ‘ITV News Channel’, so I think the BBC should avoid it at all costs. The other big change is that international channel, ‘BBC World’, is to be renamed ‘BBC World News’, the channel no longer contains as much general interest content like Top Gear, and it now tends to resemble BBC News with adverts, so it makes sense to have the change. Unfortunately the channel now has a terrible logo, but the name is good in my opinion.
Finally the 10 O’Clock News and the like are to be known as the ‘BBC News at Ten’ etc. All part of getting the ‘BBC News’ brand in your head, you see. It’s “dying” apparently, in a world of aggregated news where no one is sure where the source is.
Prayers Answered: Coke’s new look crash lands in UK!
You may recall my plee for the new look minimalist look of “Coca-Cola Classic” in the US to make it over the pond to the UK just over a month ago. Well they must have heard them… check out this beast I picked up at the cafeteria…
Some of you may have noticed the minimalist look creep into the Christmas Coca-Cola branding, though this could be sign, I considered, I assumed it was just for Christmas, looks like I should have taken it seriously though, as we have our authentic British “Coca-Cola” with this epic “new” design, which is great.
Thanks Coke.
P.S. Afterthoughts: Looks a bit boring, doesn’t it?
Coca-Cola’s Minimalist US Look
The UK has been stuck with the old millions of lines multi-coloured, fake water droplets and other jazz for so long. Please can we have Coke’s new minimalist look in our country? Please?
Based off an ancient blog post you can find here. Thanks guy.