The Worst Examples Of Corporate Rebranding Ever

Who Are You?

"Ditching the name 'HBO' is certainly a decision."

~ 44035

"And now they're releasing HBO originals on Netflix. It's like they're literally destroying a household name that was the only thing going for them."

~ esoteric_enigma

"HBO Go -> HBO Max -> Max"

~ nthroop1

"I loved how Peacock responded with a statement not to get excited, they weren't doing that."

~ Ok-Cheetah-9125

"Haha, had to look it up and sure enough:"

~ fixedtypo

Then Whose Is It?

"Not really a rebrand, but when Oldsmobile went to the 'This is not your father's Oldsmobile' campaign, they basically alienated the only group of people who actually were buying Oldsmobiles at the time.

"And now, nobody is buying Oldsmobiles."

~ jpiro

So, Where Is It?

"The University of Western Sydney just recently spent millions of dollars to rebrand to Western Sydney University."

~ Orion2200

"The Canadian version of this is when The University of Western Ontario spent a bazillion dollars rebranding to Western University."

~ VonVilhelmVilhelm

"What’s western about it? It’s not in the west of Ontario."

~ theducks

"That’s easy. It’s west of the centre of the universe (Toronto). It doesn’t matter that it’s eastern canada and eastern Ontario."

~ skippy2893

"I thought I heard that even after they did this, they're still legally called University of Western Ontario in an official capacity."

"So what was even the point?"

~ aureentuluva1

Juicy Details

"Tropicana; removing the famous red-white straw directly into the orange imagery for...an unbranded clear glass of orange juice in a generic-looking (white-labeled-looking) package."

~ KBeeFree

"They lost $65 Million! They spent $30 Million on the rebrand and lost $35 Million in sales."

~ Wearesyke

When Your Office Logo Is NSFW

"The former UK Office of Government Commerce, which spent £70k on a logo redesign circa 2008."

"The logo was the initials OGC, which when turned 90° looks like a guy having a wank."

~ Reddit

"The best part of that fiasco was the response of a spokesman."

"'It is not inappropriate to an organisation that's looking to have a firm grip on Government spend'."

"firm grip"

~ MonseigneurChocolat

If You Don't Know By Now...

"It’s been years since Angie’s List was rebranded to Angi and they’re still running ads that clarify who they are based on the old name."

"Great work, everyone."

~ patopatogris

"I haven't heard anyone explain the rebranding, but I strongly suspect that morons were confusing them with Emily's List and assuming they were a pro-choice group."

~ Cultural-Company282

Laser Kiwi!

"New Zealand spent 26 million on a new flag and then it lost to the old one in a vote."

~ thorpie88

"The insane thing is... They. Didn't. Hire."

"They crowd sourced. I sh*t you not."

~ davetenhave

"Did it actually cost millions then?"

~ sbenfsonw

"The design of the flags no, but the referendum to ask the populace if they want the new flag did."

~ confused_yelling

The Jokes Write Themselves

"The parcel delivery company Hermes which became Evri."

"Now Evri parcel is lost."

~ AHat29

"I used to have a subscription with a company that used Hermes, I had two parcels that hadn't shown up in the same month so I requested new ones, these too didn't arrive so I cancelled the order completed."

"A few months later they were back in touch to offer me a new deal, I declined and when pushed said they had a new courier; the 'new' courier was Evri..."

~ E17AmateurChef

THAT Pat

"ABC Family to Freeform. I never understood."

~ Kai-Tlyn

New Name, Same Great Service

"Comcast -> XFinity"

"I was involved in some of the meetings for that as a outside contractor. It was the dumbest move ever."

"90% of the people involved knew it was dumb, but a handful or morons at the top really thought Comcast's bad reputation would just magically disappear with the rebrand."

~ woogychuck

"I was a third party contractor who would sometimes get contracted out troubleshoot or install Comcast internet or cable."

"It was right around the time of the rebranding and let me tell you, it confused the hell out of every single person."

"The consumers, the techs, the bosses, nobody knew what to call anything for a while."

~ IWearBones138__

"I can't imagine what it was like as contractor."

"One of the websites my company was hired to build was intended to convince contractors to pay to have their own vans painted to match the new branding."

"When we told Comcast/Xfinity marketing folks that literally no contractor was going to willingly spend $3-6k to rebrand their vehicles, they acted like we were crazy."

"They geniuinely thought installation and repair contractors we be so excited about the 'earning potential' of the rebrand that they would spend thousands to do it. We fortunately lost the project to another company."

"They were seriously disconnected with reality."

~ woogychuck

"A marketing department disconnected with reality‽‽ No way!"

~ chapswithnocaps

Not Comic Sands?

"In 2010 the Gap paid an ad agency a bajillion dollars to rebrand. They came up with the name typed in Arial (Helvetica?) font.

"The Gap announced the rebrand. They were roundly mocked for spending a gorillion dollars on something that it takes two seconds for anyone to create."

"They decided to just continue using the old logo. The rebrand lasted six days."

~ VonAether

"'We believe this is a more contemporary, modern expression. The only nod to the past is that there’s still a blue box, but it looks forward'."

"It always cracks me up hearing big market whiz guys trying to explain the most mundane, boring attempt at innovation."

"Not a single consumer in the world is going to look at the Gap logo and thinking that."

~ IWearBones138__

And the Winner (loser) Is...

"Twitter to X"

~ squid1891

"This is the answer. Twitter had a brand name so recognizable, it became a literal verb that was widely used in the cultural lexicon."

"Sure, Facebook had posts and statuses, instagram had stories, but the word 'tweet' is synonymous with and unique to Twitter."

"Companies spend millions on marketing to try and get something to catch on and stick like that, it’s like striking gold, any marketing exec would kill for it."

"Baby Huey Elon threw it in the trash like it was yesterday’s news for literally the most generic, garbage branding imaginable."

"It’s stranger than fiction."

~ aveganrepairs

"Now instead of tweets we have 'excretions'."

~ Bikrdude

"On an app called X(sh)itter."

~ bobjoylove

"Cue clip of Uncle Eddie emptying his RV septic system. 'Xitter's full!'."

~ Jesus_Is_My_Gardener

"Xitler"

~ valeyard89

Companies—and countries—have various reasons for wanting a rebrand.

When it works, the results can be phenomenal.

But when it flops, no one will ever let you forget it.