Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re one of the few regions of the country that’s got choice when it comes to cable TV and cable broadband. There’s a great big company that does it–Comcast, I think they’re called–but a little company called Astound is also in the game. I’m used to seeing Astound trucks around town, carrying this non-descript logo:
But I just saw one of the company’s trucks zip by, and it carried an all-new logo. Which looked like this:
I can’t imagine anyone seeing that and not thinking what I thought: “Good God, that looks almost exactly like the Amazon.com logo!”
The smiley-below-the-name idea is nearly identical. The typefaces are very close. The use of orange is similar. And the names of the two companies aren’t exactly radically different. They’re about as close as two logos can be without being the same logo.
In fact, they’re so eerily similar that I wondered if Amazon had bought Astound. Nope, as far as I can tell: Astound is part of something called WaveDivision Holdings.
I’m not a trademark attorney, but I do know this: If I were Amazon.com, and Astound’s logo isn’t somehow used under license, I’d be nonplussed. In fact, I might get all frowny over it:
Looking on the bright side, though, if the companies ever merge, the rebranding would be a cinch. Here, I’ll do it for ’em right here and now:
Or, conversely:
That was easy…