Logo Contest

[Joshua Tinnin]

On Wednesday 09 February 2005 01:13 pm, Robert Watson 
<rwatson at freebsd.org> wrote:
> On Wed, 9 Feb 2005, Andrew L. Gould wrote:
> > I'd like to voice my support for the logo competition.
> >
> > I was particularly pleased to read a comment on Daemon News that
> > Beastie would remain the mascot and that the logo and mascot are
> > being separated.  I am hopeful that this comment was accurate.
> >
> > ...now, if I could only draw......
>
> The comment is accurate.  We'd like to get a logo we can provide to
> companies that are willing to stick it on their products as
> "supporting FreeBSD" -- while we all love the Daemon, we know that
> not every company can stick it on their Ethernet card box or server
> support web page.  The intent is to keep Beastie as the Mascot, and
> you'll still see him all over the place.  I can't imagine that
> FreeBSD t-shirts will stop holding him, let alone the large number of
> web pages, CDROM distributions, and so on. And don't forget the
> stuffed animal Beasties :-).
>
> For entertainment value, I should scan in the anonymous letter I
> received from someone in Kansas a few years ago.  It compared the
> Beastie to using Osama Bin Laden as the FreeBSD logo, and was CC'd to
> my company and research sponsors. It's a classic :-).  Of course, it
> wasn't appreciated at work because this was a bit after the anthrax
> scare, and anonymous mailed envelopes weren't real popular.

Really? Well, OK, but I kinda wish that was made a little more clear, 
before I got worked up about it anyway ;)

I still don't see the need to do this. Why does the website have to be 
changed in order that people can display "supporting FreeBSD"? How does 
Duke University react to such complaints? They've had their mascot 
longer, as has Underwood Deviled Ham (in fact their devil is the oldest 
food trademark still in use in the US, first registered in 1870), and 
yet they continue to use them. I dunno, I think longevity of brand 
recognition is more important than these sorts of issues. Beastie has 
been around for a decade and a half, and FreeBSD would lose that if the 
brand changed. What's next, are people going to start making unices 
without any reference to "daemons" at all, in order not to possibly 
offend a few people?

- jt