Last night on Twitter, people were all (ahem) atwitter ripping the new Hershey’s logo apart. Specifically, everyone is drawing the comparison to the “pile of poop” emoji and lambasting the Hershey’s branding team for this heinous misstep. But is it really? Let’s think about this:
- The chocolate company’s newest icon is easily identifiable as the beloved Hershey Kiss. That IS the actual shape of the tasty treat – this is what a Kiss looks like. The logo also includes the signature paper that comes out of the top of the foil wrapper.
- The poo emoji is a cartoon character that really looks nothing like a pile of poop. I mean, unless you poop like chocolate soft serve ice cream, this is clearly not “real” looking fecal matter. The eyes and smile add to the fun – and take this image further away from reality.
- Hershey claimed this chocolate shape way back in 1962…and people still chow down on this bite-sized treat today. I believe the poo emoji came into existence a full 50 years later in 2012. So who is ripping off whom, hm?
Yes, branders need to be aware of what is going on around them – and I would imagine the designers behind the new Hershey logo all have iPhones and are quite familiar with the emoji in question. But does that mean that branders have to eschew their own iconic properties, just because someone creates a caricature that people use while texting? I’d like to think that brands like Hershey’s have earned enough brand equity with their 50-year-old product line that continues to delight people of all ages. Even if you think the new logo looks like crap, at least the candies don’t taste like it!
Of course, in the near future I’m sure there will be some peanut butter cookies topped with Hershey Kisses adorned with sugar eyes and smiles…and that’s just fine, too.
~ Denise Blasevick, @AdvertGirl & CEO, The S3 Agency
PS – In all of the criticism, not one person seems to have called the new logo a log. Softball missed…
