
Airbnb Logo Redesign Survey: More People See Hearts Than Naughty Parts - ckelly
https://www.survata.com/blog/airbnb-logo-redesign-survey-more-people-see-hearts-than-naughty-parts/
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jrs235
What about "Automation Anywhere's logo
([https://www.automationanywhere.com/](https://www.automationanywhere.com/) )"

Edit: fixed url

~~~
userbinator
There needs to be an easy way to search for existing logos by image
similarity... the USPTO has an extensive categorisation method for trademarks
(
[http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm](http://tess2.uspto.gov/tmdb/dscm/index.htm)
) but what's really needed is something more visual. Using Google on a
greyscale version of Airbnb's logo didn't yield anything geometrically
similar.

~~~
srv23
There is; it's called a trademark search, and it's a matter of public record:
"The trademark examining attorney has searched the Office’s database of
registered and pending marks and has found no conflicting marks that would bar
registration..."
([http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn86160387&docId...](http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn86160387&docId=OOA20140317162306#docIndex=1&page=1))
~The USPTO's response to this Jan 8, 2014 filing:
[http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn86160387&docId...](http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn86160387&docId=APP20140111083929#docIndex=5&page=1)

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jerhinesmith
When I look at the clean logo used in the survey, I think more paperclip or
'A'. When this was announced on their blog, however, a hand-drawn image was
displayed prominently -- an image which looks significantly more like a "butt"
than the rendered version.

Referenced image:
[http://i.imgur.com/XwKTmgq.png](http://i.imgur.com/XwKTmgq.png)

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minimaxir
The blog post fails to mention the sample size, which according to the
downloaded data, is _164 respondants_. Additionally, only 34 respondents (20%)
actually said heart (the most popular word in the dataset), so there's a lot
of variation in interpretation.

~~~
ckelly
Hi Max, Survata co-founder here. 164 respondents is actually a fine sample
size for a quick read on qualitative feedback. Even if this had been a
quantitative study, that would represent a 7.7% margin of error at a 95%
confidence level. Counter-intuitively, you don't always need thousands of
respondents to measure an audience's behavior!

~~~
minimaxir
The calculation (1.96 / 2) / sqrt(164) for the margin of error isn't
applicable in this case because it's not a Bernoulli pass/fail event, and is
instead an open-ended question.

If you framed the question as "Do you think this is a sex object? Yes/No" then
the margin of error might be more applicable. I count 10/164 (6%) who did:
stating that 94% of people don't think AirBNB's logo is a sex object is a much
better lede.

~~~
mixologic
I count 17 that classified it as a sex object. Its worth noting that this
survey was sampled _after_ it was released to the public and a controversy had
already stirred.

I was impressed that one respondent said "ouija board planchette".

The open ended nature of "what do you see" is totally questionable. The 'do
you think this is a sex object' is a much better way to ask that question as
even though its leading, its also the kind of thing you cant 'unsee'. "Does
this look like balls?" It does now that you mention it, yes.

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ericd
One issue to keep in mind is that while people might initially not see the
naughty interpretation, there's oftentimes a "cannot unsee" effect with these
kinds of things. Happened with a company I used to work at with their logo
redesign.

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crystaln
One might imagine naughty parts from just about any logo.

The Y Combinator logo looks like cleavage to me.

~~~
BerislavLopac
Actually, it's more like a lady's inner thighs... (y) ;-)

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userbinator
I see what looks like a place marker embedded in the letter A, which makes
perfect sense for Airbnb. Maybe that's what they were intending?

...and after staring at the logo for a few more minutes, I still can't see any
more resemblance to genitalia than the letter A.

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viggity
I created a quick, interactive visualization of the survey data here:
[https://www.machete.io/board/view/airbnb_logo_by_survata/50f...](https://www.machete.io/board/view/airbnb_logo_by_survata/50fd3a61-b943-4860-9f71-571f1d68359f)

You can spot some interesting (but probably not surprising) insights like
there were one and half times as many women who responded as men (96 to 68),
but there were twice as many men as women who saw something "sexual" (11 to
6).

You can play around with it and see if you spot any other interesting tidbits.

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jack-r-abbit
Haters gonna hate.

Yesterday I read an article about AirBnB from someone that had clearly gone
off the rails. Taking less issue with the boobs/balls/vag image in the logo,
she started off by ranting about how insensitive the white-male founders were
for using the slogan "belong anywhere" because _one way people “belonged” to
other people was through chattel slavery. Another was through marriages that
made women the property of their husbands._ Seriously?

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x0x0
People claiming they see vagina or butt in that picture remind me of the tools
claiming they'd always think of tampons or periods when apple named the ipad
[1].

[1] [http://www.fastcompany.com/1528988/apples-ipad-name-not-
firs...](http://www.fastcompany.com/1528988/apples-ipad-name-not-first-choice-
women-period)

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BerislavLopac
Funny thing is that the heart symbol actually was naughty parts originally...
;-) [http://www.cracked.com/article_19909_6-famous-symbols-
that-d...](http://www.cracked.com/article_19909_6-famous-symbols-that-dont-
mean-what-you-think_p2.html)

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sosuke
It looked like a bent paper clip airplane, I can't see the genitalia at all.

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model500
this looks like it was designed with a spirograph back in 1970. also, it looks
like kim kardashian's ass, or a paperclip

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ryandvm
So... this material is legit, but the Malaysian crash discussions I kept
trying to read earlier today were flagged into oblivion. Got it.

