Kraft Foods Rebrands as…Mondel?z?

Mike Rankin

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I don’t know what’s more entertaining, an epic Chinese government Photoshop disaster, or an epic corporate rebranding fail. Recently, the internets treated us to both of these delicacies, with the rebrand fail coming from Kraft Inc.

The company that brings you Oreos, Cadbury Eggs, and a slew of other sweet and/or salty snacks, announced plans to split itself in two parts, a grocery division and a snack division. The latter will be called Mondel?z International, Inc. What the heck is a "Mondel?z?" According to the company, it’s a new word meant to "evoke the idea of ‘delicious world.’"

Um, OK.

And here’s the new logo.

On the upside, it is nicely kerned. On the downside, it may be gushing blood. And it sure is…purple.

So far, there’s been plenty of reaction (almost entirely negative) to this rebranding. Kraft’s is just the latest in a line of bizarre rebrandings. The old adage, "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it," seems to have been forgotten in many places, so we end up with unpronounceable "words" that drive a spell-checker berserk like "syfy," "xfinity," and "Xe." Seriously, what in the name of Qwikster is going on here?

J.C. Penney, the Gap, and Michaels at least kept their iconic names while they tinkered with their logos.

To other companies who might be considering a similar rebranding, I offer this humble tip: if you have to include a macron in your logo to tell me how to pronounce it, you probably should go back to the drawing board. Better yet, before you even approach said drawing board, read Thomas Phinney’s awesome case study on how to design a new logo.

OK, I’ve had my fun at Kraft, er, Mondel?z’s expense. What do you think? If we set the name aside and just look at the design of the logo, is it effective? Does it make you want to consume Cadbury Eggs and drink Tang? Or put a bandage on it to stop the bleeding?