Helping BP Re-Brand: Artists Offer New “Creative”

June 12, 2010 Artists

New Logo Redesign Contest Offers Artists Opportunity to Go Beyond Petroleum

Corporations routinely use the talents of artists to help sell the brand, the image, the story – from packaging to video to stickers to t-shirts to billboards to posters over urinals.

For BP, whose Helios logo was a re-branding of BP’s old image in ’02, the need for spin control these days is spinning out of control. We’ve had barrels of dispersant, drenched pelicans, plumes, dead zones, containment domes, junk shots, top kills, and top hats. Somehow, despite the cute names of strategies, the oil hasn’t stopped gushing into the gulf and no person is happy with BP. In a random act of “street art” just last week we showed you re-branding someone did with the BP gas station sign in lower Manhattan, “NYC Street Renders a BP Opinion”.

But they can still advertise: Type the words “BP and ____________________ ” (just about anything) into Google right now and see what pops up. Most likely you’ll see a little banner like this at the top of your search.

11 people died, the oil has continued to gush uncontrollably in unknown quantities for more than 50 days, and BP is committing a reported $50 million dollars to a new advertising and PR campaign across all major and minor media, including social media (BP is on FB). BP has purchased landing positions on your Google searches and cute little pop-ups for you to “Friend” BP on your YouTube Videos. When it comes to containment, the biggest gusher of all turns out to be how much damage is being done to the brand.

Since the folks over at LogoMyWay launched their logo redesign contest, they have received 557 entries from artists to re-design the BP logo. The editor says, “I think the (6000) creative logo designers at LogoMyWay should update the BP logo with a more suitable design and brand. The design community and the general public will vote on the winner.” 197,000 views of the contest indicate that people have great interest in the new BP logo design. Here are some of the logos that we think are most communicative.