When serious, large companies consider changing even the smallest detail of their logos, they usually hire professionals. Agencies with experience in brand communication, expertise in color composition or knowledge of art history. At the end of a consulting process lasting several years, drafts are then tried out with test customers in order to finally change a brushstroke.
Or do it like Elon Musk.
The billionaire changed the logo of his third-party company Twitter overnight. Yes, indeed, the little blue bird has disappeared, without a word it has been replaced by another animal. At the top of the page and when the Twitter website is loading, users are now greeted by a dog with a goofy look. However, connoisseurs of Twitter folklore immediately know: this is not an ordinary dog, but the logo of another favorite of the company owner Elon Musk. It is the face of the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
Dogecoin was originally a fun project that focused on digital cryptocurrencies or Coins should make fun of. The currency is actually a dull copy of similar coins. It has no use and cannot do anything special. Instead, it has a cute dog as its logo, a Shiba Inu, which is a Japanese breed of hunting dog. But because the Internet is good at laughing at itself, Dogecoin was willingly adopted – by Elon Musk, among others.
Which leads to the unofficial new Twitter logo. Because Elon Musk currently has a small legal problem in connection with the dog cryptocurrency. In Manhattan, people have it suedwho had invested in the currency. They feel betrayed by Musk. Because he had – at that time still as one of the most far-reaching Twitter influencers and not as the company boss – literally praised Dogecoin to the skies for years. “To the Moon” the exchange rate of the currency will rise, Musk announced. The plaintiffs now accuse him of celebrating the coin for years. Musk is said to have been knowingly part of a pyramid scheme aimed at driving the price up in order to then sell Dogecoins for a large profit. Musk knew that the currency had no intrinsic value. Deceived investors would have lost a lot of money in the process.
The logo isn’t really a belated April Fool’s joke
Musk’s attorneys now have requested that the lawsuit be dismissed, it is obvious nonsense. Musk’s years of tweets about Dogecoin’s potential success were obviously “innocent and silly.” Statements such as “Dogecoin Rulz” (Dogecoin rules) and “no highs, no lows, only Doge” (no highs, no lows, only Doge) are too vague to support an allegation of fraud. Musk’s attorneys say it’s not illegal to “tweet words or funny pictures that support a legitimate cryptocurrency.”
The logo change from Vogel to Shiba Inu on Twitter should therefore be less – how like the British one Guardian guessed – may be a belated April Fool’s joke, but a humorous comment by the Twitter owner on what happened in a New York court case. His lawyers are unlikely to be enthusiastic. Because it happened, which reliably happens when Musk even mentions Dogecoin. The exchange rate of the currency rose properly – by 25 percent within 24 hours. The fact that the price reaction supports the plaintiffs’ argument that Musk manipulates the price at will probably only makes the action stronger in Musk’s eyes. It’s a show of force.
The question of the future of the Twitter logo remains. Will you say “bark” instead of “twitter” in the future, the latter being English for “chirp”? Musk has yet to comment on that. But nothing is over as quickly as a joke on Twitter. Therefore, it can be assumed that the homepage of Twitter will soon be showing a bird again and not a Japanese dog.
