Wattle lot of waste on logo fail
AUSTRALIA is having an identity crisis.
No, not the crisis where states are shutting borders on each other – well, mainly on Victoria – while state premiers barely hide their glee as they solemnly tell their constituents they are protecting them from the dirty southerners.
No, this is about the identity of our nation and how we present ourselves to the world. Specifically, our national logo.
Of course, our first thought is of the green and gold Made in Australia logo – the triangle with the kangaroo in it.
It is the logo that tells everyone whether something was made in Australia and, with the recent addition of a sliding scale at the bottom, how much of the ingredient comes from Australia.
But that logo is not actually our national logo.
That honour is held by a logo featuring two boomerangs forming the shape of Australia and the words Australia Unlimited logo.
Don’t worry, I had no idea what it was either until I looked it up this week.
With such obvious cut-through (not), two years ago a high-profile group of Australian business figures began to agitate for a new slogan and logo – something they said would be Brand Australia.
This logo, they said, would exemplify Australia and be instantly recognised the world over.
They took their inspiration from New Zealand’s hugely successful 100% New Zealand logo.
The feeling was the kangaroo logo was more a product thing – and obviously few knew that Australia Unlimited even existed.
This new Brand Australia would be more about who we are.
The Federal Government jumped on board and poured $10 million into the project.
Thus, as when any government becomes involved, the project set off on a course of delay after delay regarding when it was meant to be released.
A few weeks ago the word was a logo had been completed and all was ready for the grand reveal.
Except the grand reveal was not so grand. It wasn’t actually even a reveal.
It was more something Austrade quietly placed on the backblocks of its website, where hopefully no one would see it.
Logic suggests there were two reasons for this.
First, the main driver of the new logo was West Australian mining magnate Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest.
Twiggy is a big thinker who knows a thing or two about exporting iron ore to China and is also a heavy player in the beef export market.
Twiggy is also the bloke who, in April, embarrassed Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt at a press conference to announce Twiggy’s donation of 10 million coronavirus tests.
Twiggy’s crime was to invite China’s Victorian consul-general to the press conference without telling Mr Hunt.
That went down like a coughing fit in Kmart.
Twiggy quickly went from national hero to naughty boy.
So any association Twiggy had with the new logo was presumably not big on the government’s agenda.
But there was another apparent reason for the government’s reticence. And that is that the logo looks like the coronavirus itself.
Yes, as you can see, what was meant to be a spray of wattle sprigs actually looks like a nasty virus under a microscope.
Presumably when they developed the design, coronavirus was not a thing. But it was by the time it was to be released.
So there you have it. Our new national brand is a virus initiated by a pariah.
Meanwhile, demand for exporters for the kangaroo logo has skyrocketed in recent months, signalling that there is life in old Skippy yet.
That’s if the golden virus doesn’t get him.
Ed Gannon is editor of The Weekly Times ed.gannon@news.com.au @EdgannonWtn