Starbucks tweaks its logo and raises the wrath of Christian group

Starbucks has been undergoing a number of strategic changes since the return of marketing whiz Howard Schultz to the top management job.

Besides a return to a more singular focus on coffee and the coffee experience, the company has just changed its brand logo. So what's the big deal? Companies periodically modify their logos as they evolve their brands...

In this case, Starbucks has "undressed" its mermaid graphic inside the brand seal. The aquatic lady is now bare-breasted with her tail split in half. The logo colors have switched from green to brown. The more "graphic" depiction of the Starbucks' mermaid has gotten some Christian religious groups all up in a fury. They feel it is too revealing and inappropriate. They are even calling for a boycott of Starbucks in addtion to encouraging consumers to write and complain to the company. Honestly, had the logo change not been brought to my attention I might not have really noticed anything other than the color shift.

A video report by MSNBC   shows the change in question.

Certainly this religious group has a right to air its opinion, however, it seems to me that some of these groups spend too much time complaining about things that are just not that big a deal to the vast majority of the world. As I understand it, this logo change actually brings the brand identity back closer towards the identity used by Starbucks in its earlier days when it was about coffee and only coffee.

See what you think and let me know.

Watching out for you everyday.

Eli