Don’t Put a Bird On It
I woke up this morning, started reading my RSS feeds, ran into this nightmare and puked a little inside my mouth:
Yes, you’re seeing that correctly. Comcast has co-opted the NBC peacock. No, this isn’t a prank.
I know companies aren’t people and don’t have feelings, and while I’m not going to necessarily lose sleep over this abomination, it does bother me. Like many guys and gals my age who grew up in the New York, tri-state area, I have a soft spot for NBC. The 3-note jingle, Saturday Night Live, Chuck Scarborough & Sue Simmons, Rockefeller Center, Seinfeld. I grew up with NBC, so in a sense, it’s part of me. Let’s not mention my wife has worked for NBC for over 10 years.
General Electric has never tried to incorporate the NBC logo into it’s own identity since it took a controlling share of the company in 1986. Comcast obviously doesn’t have the level of brand cachet that GE has. Comcast is Kabletown (note: Comcast is referred to as Kabletown internally too, not just by Tina Fey).
Business is business and life will go on, but moves like this just look pathetic. It’s the equivalent of pulling a Mercedes-Benz emblem off the hood of a car and wearing it around your neck.
Hey Comcast, putting a peacock on top of your head doesn’t make you look cool. It makes you look like a jackass.
Update: Perhaps a better analogy is if you ripped off a Mercedes-Benz emblem and stuck it on the hood of a 1982 Chevrolet Chevette.