Damn Cingular Logo
Jan 2007
09
OK, just look at this. This is a damn fine phone. Black and silver, stylish as all fuck. Makes you feel like James Bond when you slide it open. And there’s Mr. Jerusalem there, looking slick on the large, bright Samsung screen. But wait, the Spider is pissed! Someone’s gone and written “Cingular” all over his forehead. WTF is that all about? Well, no problem, I’ll just go into the settings and turn off the logo, the switch is just right there…
Well, goddammit! it doesn’t work! My best option is to change the color of the logo to make it as unnoticeable as possible.
The branding on cellphones is a little bit ridiculous. On the front of this phone I have “Cingular” printed onto the plastic casing above the screen, the little Cingular jumping-jack imprinted into the selector button on the keypad, and they felt it’s necessary to write “Cingular” again in software on the screen half an inch below the printed logo. I guess just in case I forget who I am using for my cellphone service. And of course, out of the box this thing wants to use the Cingular theme for it’s ringtone.
I can understand a company wanting to get the free advertising, hell, they pretty much paid for my phone with incentives. But why screw with the screen? Most people I know want to put one of their own pictures on there. Do the phone companies think that having their name inscribed on Fluffy’s head is going to get people to speak of their service in glowing terms?
Ease off on the branding guys. Let people do what they want with their phones and maybe they’ll talk up your service to their friends. That’s gotta be worth a lot more than a lo-rez logo uglying up my screen.