The changeover from Cingular Wireless to AT&T seems, to me, to be one of the worst thought-out, bungled marketing moves ever. First: AT&T’s most recent logo facelift is shockingly lame. I’m not sure which high school student won which design contest, but it looks like something a housewife designed with Microsoft Paint. AT&T’s segmented globe logo, famous for decades, as been modified into a lifeless, child-like crayon scrawl, and the bold “AT&T” logo text has been replaced by lame lowercase Verdana.
Cingular, by contrast, had a spiffy, progressive-looking “Jax,” like the kid’s game with the ball. Oh, sure, most people thought it was the letter “X,” but that was okay with me, too, as it (perhaps deliberately) evoked slick images of the X-Men. The new AT&T graphics evokes only jaw-dropping lameness, and the clumsy transition from Cingular imagery to AT&T branding seems to have been designed by chimps.
In the high-stakes world of communications media, I’m really shocked to see this kind of mediocrity—on a multi-million-dollar scale no less. Every minute of every day we’re hit with the most clever of campaigns (my beloved GEICO Cavemen, for one). Just in terms of general impression, the Cingular-AT&T transitional campaign feels bungled, and therefore does not inspire brand confidence (or, in my case, brand loyalty).
AT&T sold their wireless division to Cingluar several years back (and, by the way, forced all of their customers to buy new GSM phones). And now, apparently, AT&T has swallowed up Cingular, forcing the name change back. A kid working at a local Cingular store told me the corporate honchos decided AT&T is the better-known brand name, and decided to spend millions if not billions changing the hundreds of Cingular stores and handsets over to the incredibly lame AT&T branding.
Which misses the point that the heaviest users of wireless services are young people, no old people. The “better known” name is also the “older” name. To me, AT&T is an old name, stinking of rotary phones and Ma Bell. Cingular’s hip Generation X Logo is, to my thinking, a much more desirable brand for dealing with the short attention spans of kids today, kids who’ll now be lured by Verizon and the many other emerging wireless carriers vying for their attention (including Cricket, an emerging company that offers flat rate service—unlimited minutes and texting for around $50 a month with no credit check and no contracts).
I can’t begin to imagine what AT&T’s executive are thinking. Oh, I’m sure the Gray Panther set will be their oyster, and people already with Cingular may grudgingly hold onto their service (I mean, my *phone* still says “Cingular* on it). But if it breaks and I need a new one, I’m at least twice as tempted to switch carriers. I just think AT&T evokes old thinking and, as a designer, I think their logo is way to lame to be forced to look at it every day.
By the way, AdWeek rated Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” commercials as the Best Campaign of 2006, followed by the GEICO “Cavemen” campaign. Oddly, no mention of Cingular-AT&T.
13 Comments
The change in logo reminds me of when Nextel merged with Sprint and Sprint redesigned it's color scheme from red and black to yellow and black. Whenever I look at I think of bees, and I'm sure they must love the fact that when I see their logo I think of buzzing insects.
I agree that AT&T is not the name to go with. Cingular is something I associate with cell phones, AT&T I think of the old land lines. At least they could have kept both names and called it "AT&T Cingular" just so that way they can keep the brand viable.
I was tempted to switch over to Cingular when they announced they would be the carrier for the Apple iPhone, which is a pretty slick looking piece of technology. It's also way more phone then I need, and while the price of a new phone + the price of an iPod is comparable to the $500-$600 pricetag of the iPhone, most of the iPods have several times more memory. So in the end I chose to spend my money elsewhere.
scrawled by JasonD | June 1, 2007 11:28 AM
Priest, did you know that a caveman sitcom pilot based on the Geico ads was picked up by ABC for this fall? No, I'm not joking...
scrawled by Jer | June 1, 2007 12:46 PM
Yep. I *really* hope they get good writyers. I knowthe actors can pull it off, but the *material* has got to be strong.
I'm scared they'll just go for the gag and it'll wear thin quick.
scrawled by priest | June 1, 2007 1:39 PM
AT&T recently removed the Bellsouth logo from the (very prominent) Bellsouth building here in Atlanta and replaced it with the small, nondescript, and lame AT&T logo. It was, for some reason, really jarring to me - I saw it while creeping through town in traffic, and grabbed my phone to call a friend and say "holy crap, they took down the Bellsouth logo!"
The whole switchover to AT&T does seem pretty silly - the general reaction seems to be "AT&T? I didn't know they were still around..."
JRjr
scrawled by Jerry | June 1, 2007 3:35 PM
I actually prefer that AT&T name; "Cingular" annoys me in the way trademarkable misspellings do.
scrawled by Greg Morrow | June 1, 2007 3:40 PM
AT&T took over Bell South?
Isn't this the exact reverse of the Ma Bell deconstruction? Is this legal?
scrawled by priest | June 1, 2007 4:26 PM
Cingular was quite possibly THE worst wireless company I'd ever dealt with. Not long after I dropped them, they were gobbled up by AT & T. Coincidence?
scrawled by Hysan | June 1, 2007 7:27 PM
can any one say monopoly? I can in my area they offer phone, internet, cable, and wireless. Their older logo did make more sense when I think at&t I do think old. and did you het your grass under control?
scrawled by mdwaire | June 1, 2007 7:30 PM
AT&T took over Bell South?
That's how this whole Cingular mess got started. Cingular was owned fifty-fifty by BellSouth and SBC. Not to long after Cingular bought AT&T Wireless, SBC happened to buy AT&T proper - keeping the AT&T name, as no brand in the world was loathed as much as SBC. AT&T then went out and bought BellSouth, getting all of Cingular in the process, and thus starting the rebranding that seems incredibly stupid to pretty much the entire American public.
All the Bells are now either AT&T, Verizon, or Qwest, with the exception, oddly enough, of Cincinnati Bell.
scrawled by Craig | June 2, 2007 2:46 AM
Craig-- that's amazing. I mean, you just can't make this stuff up. SBC bought AT&T?! SBC?!? That crappy ambulanec-chasing sleaze phone carrier is now AT&T?
So I'm not the only one who thinks the re-branding of Cingular is a huge, costly error? Other than the iPhone, which I am not getting anyway, there's no compelling reason to stay with Cing-- er, AT&T. The price fixing in the business is so blatant, it really doesn't matter what carrier you use: pricng is all witin a few dollars of one another.
scrawled by priest | June 6, 2007 10:25 AM
If you think THAT'S bad branding, you should take a look at the 2012 Olympics logo controversy. London paid the equivalent of 800 grand for something that looks like a pink swastika.
scrawled by Thad | June 6, 2007 11:37 AM
Priest...put it in old white men terms...you know...Republicans....they want things how they used to be, so out goes the Cingular name, in comes the at&t.
scrawled by Scavenger | June 6, 2007 5:05 PM
Except they made it lowercase. Y'know, to "hep" it up.
scrawled by priest | June 8, 2007 10:06 AM