New Delhi: A city in the US state of Alabama has just unveiled a new logo and it has created a stir among the local community. Some residents think the logo appeared to be sending the wrong message, and many have started a petition in change.org calling for the restoration of the city’s old logo.
The logo, part of a new branding campaign for northern Alabama’s Florence city, was announced only last week, news agency AP reported.
The new logo is a capital F followed by an exclamation point. To form ‘F!’, it actually uses the first three letters of Florence — F, L O, with the last two letters arranged in a way that it looks like an exclamation mark.
“The new logo symbolizes the people of Florence’s passion and love for the city. A sense of amazement, delight and pride is all reflected in the Florence logo exclamation point,” the city said in a news release while announcing the new logo, according to the AP report.
The city paid $25,000 to a marketing firm in Birmingham for the branding, WAAY-TV reported.
The logo drew heavy backlash immediately after it was posted on the city’s Facebook page on January 26.
Most of the over 2,600 comments so far are negative.
In the Facebook post, the City of Florence wrote that Mayor Betterton and the Florence City Council “proudly announce the new logo and tagline for the City of Florence, Alabama”.
“In August 2021, the Mayor and Council set out to lead a branding and marketing campaign that reflects the modern day feel of our beautiful town and encourages residents, businesses, and visitors to truly see what Florence has to offer. As a result, they have encapsulated the essence of Florence in a simple, fun, attractive logo paired with an invitation to ‘Live for More’,” it posted.
The comment section is full of criticism of the move.
“I went to bed in the beautiful Renaissance City of Florence, Alabama... and woke up to the city council telling everyone who comes here they can... well.... go away and live more somewhere else,” wrote a user.
“It’s terrible,” another person posted.
“Thank you leaders of Florence for once again wasting our tax dollars. What a joke. $25000 was needed in only about 1000 other places... Good job. Pitiful. Just pitiful,” wrote yet another.
In a separate post, a Florence resident wrote: “One race, one creed, one religion! One human cause! We can all agree! We all hate it! United At Last!!!”