MARKETING MIX: Is TUI's logo a guilty smile?

Can it be a coincidence that TUI's 'smile' logo - the red scrawl

that now decorates all of German tour giant Preussag's holdings - bears

such a striking resemblance to the 'sausage' icon for The Guardian's

mythical 'Joy' brand?

Enquiring minds want to know: was the TUI master brand borrowed from the

bogus brand? Or were they simply separated at birth?

In July, the cunning minds at The Guardian hired design consultant Steve

Hilton from Good Business to whip up a brand without a product.

The Guardian needed something universal to investigate how easily a

brand could be launched and marketed. Hilton held a pitch for the bogus

brand and hired Karmarama.

The agency produced the 'Joy' logo, spelling the name out, adding a

chubby red crescent above the 'o,' and tacking on the gloriously vacuous

strapline, 'think, run, kick, hum, sit, cheat, tan, but do it with

Joy.'

The Guardian ran ads in the newspaper and on bus sides. 1562 responses

were logged on the web site and phone line. Asked what they thought the

ads were promoting, the largest number, 19%, chose - you guessed it -

travel. Suspicious or what?

A spokeswoman for World of TUI puts the matter to rest. The logo, she

says, originated with Preussag's TUI brand in Germany, where it has been

in use for years. A likely story ...

This article was first published on Marketing