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Like a canary in a coal mine, the little blue fowl silhouette that embodied Twitterβs model for effectively over a decade formally croaked yesterday as Elon Musk foisted the letter π on us, signifying that the worst has but to return. Issues have been already off to a poor begin for the brand new brand when Musk jumped the gun by having the previous emblem faraway from the outside of Twitterβs San Francisco headquarters, allegedly and not using a allow for road closure. (The San Francisco Police Division advised Hyperallergic that βno crime wasΒ dedicated,Β and this incident was not a police matter.β)
And per the custom of reacting to useless change with excessively meme-y sarcasm, social media customers didn’t disappoint of their responses to the emblem.
Muskβs rebranding efforts really feel like a punishment for our begrudging concession that Twitter was nonetheless higher than Metaβs new Threads avenue as he pushes to transform the digital discussion board into βan the whole lot appβ akin to Chinaβs WeChat platform. However for now, as an alternative of tweeting, Musk says that weβll be βXeetingβ as an alternative (pronunciation not but disclosed however Iβm going with βzeetingβ till in any other case suggested). Twitter (πitter?) consumer @sixofsongbirds makes an apt connection between this rebranding and the sensation of Barbieβs dream home being taken over by the βManosphere.β (Sorry for the Barbie film spoilers, but it surelyβs kinda on you in the event you havenβt seen it but.)
Snowballing from the Manosphere commentary, this rebrand evaluation is hilariously correct. Weβve seen Man Candles, Manscaped, Dove for Males, and all kinds of compelled masculine branding of normal merchandise.
Sesame Avenueβs social media individual left us with this iconic tweet, and whereas it will probablyβt be topped, the remainder of Sesame Avenueβs puppet forged positively ran with the joke. (Unrelated: Completely devastating that I wasnβt following any of those accounts till simply now.)
Jokes apart, it seems like Musk has been making strikes towards π since his PayPal days. His attachment to the letter has proven itself by SpaceX, Teslaβs Mannequin X, xAI, and even in his and Grimesβs first little one X Γ A-12, whom he publicly refers to as X. The under video traces Muskβs historical past and supposed which means with the letter in his enterprise and branding ventures during the last 20 or so years:
Let that sink in β¦
Becoming a member of in on the infantile quips is that this tweet that picks on the simplicity of π as a brand:
However Musk wasnβt the one one captivated by X β itβs really fairly broadly utilized in branding. Each Meta and Microsoft (by Xbox) really have logos on the letter for communications and social media branding which might yield future authorized issues for Musk down the road. Listed below are another examples of X getting used for branding effectively earlier than Musk went public along with his thought for the βthe whole lot app.β
In the meantime, some customers provided truths about a number of the darker undertones of the symbolism, drawing parallels to the Accomplice flag in gentle of Muskβs continued help of βfree speechβ coming from identified racists and the noteworthy spike in hate speech after he took over as CEO of the platform.
Thereβs additionally the identified proven fact that the letter X has β¦ uh β¦ grownup connotations, as one consumer indicated under:
On one other be aware, I assumed Iβd additionally highlight this enjoyable redesign that pays homage to the fowl brand:
And final however not least, allow us to pay our respects to the social media consumer who’s braver than any US Marine for shifting on regardless of what horrors theyβve witnessed β¦
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