July 22, 2009
Syfy channel rebrand.
this is the least offensive of the station identifiers
This post brought to you by me being bored and poking around The Skinny.
So the Scifi channel has rebranded to “Syfy”. I would like to jump on the bandwagon and say that this was a poor move. It’s way too web 2.0/trendy of a name, especially when the old one wasn’t dated. Are they trying to appeal to the trendy pseudo-intellectuals, or have the station execs just gotten too lazy to stop using txt speak?
To be fair, the creative (by Motionographer) is gorgeous. The animation is flawless and interesting. The attention to detail is superb. However, I agree with the author over at The Skinny. If you didn’t know the history of Scifi, you have no idea what the channel is about from these. It’s so cerebral and far-removed from what the actual channel airs, it ceases to make sense.
Viewing the trailer on the Syfy website doesn’t help clarify. It’s just as generic and mismatched as the rest of the campaign to their existing identity and line-up of shows. What about scifi programming exactly warrants the gratuitous use of glitter and butterflies? Have the people doing the rebranding never met scifi fans? Here’s a hint: they’re not Mariah Carey.
It’s a shame that such gorgeous creative is essentially being wasted on an ill-concieved rebrand. I can only imagine how amazing the product would have been if the branding direction had any basis whatsoever in reality.
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