CIA comes out with new anti-terrorist logo

[InfinityGoddess]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/22/terrorist-busters/

And I only wish that they were making it up (https://www.cia.gov/news-information/cia-the-war-on-terrorism/dci-counterterrorist-center-terrorist-buster-logo.html).

Those of us who live in the US, this is your tax dollars at work.

[William Haskins]

Those of us who live in the US, this is your tax dollars at work.

oh my. how many families / children / cities could have been saved with the vast amount of money that it takes to create 2D art?

it had to be in the billions.

[Meerkat]

That's better than their alternative B: "Twitchy the Bomb Dog"

[kristie911]

oh my. how many families / children / cities could have been saved with the vast amount of money that it takes to create 2D art?

it had to be in the billions.

While I always love your sarcasm (no, really, I do!), you forget this was a government project...it probably was at least a million or two!

[InfinityGoddess]

oh my. how many families / children / cities could have been saved with the vast amount of money that it takes to create 2D art?

it had to be in the billions.

Actually, my commentary was more on the fact that the CIA would rip off The Ghostbusters francise like this for something so serious as terrorism. Though, seeing as CIA is government, a logo like this is paid for with taxpayer dollars.

It's even more disconcerting that they would spend this much time on a logo and not enough time tracking real terrorists.

[scarletpeaches]

I can just imagine Osama Q. Terrorist spotting that sign and saying, "Curses! I was going to blow up the infidel today but they have SIGNS everywhere - back to Durkadurkistan we go..."

[InfinityGoddess]

I can just imagine Osama Q. Terrorist spotting that sign and saying, "Curses! I was going to blow up the infidel today but they have SIGNS everywhere - back to Durkadurkistan we go..."

:roll: Olbermann had some funny commentary about this last night on his show when he named the CIA "The Worst Persons in the World"....hehe

(I'll have to fetch the clip later...)

[blacbird]

oh my. how many families / children / cities could have been saved with the vast amount of money that it takes to create 2D art?

it had to be in the billions.

You might be correct. Wasn't that long ago we all had a laugh at the new logo dreamed up for the London Olympics, and I garontee that some consulting firm got paid many quid for that monstrosity. I worked for BP back in 1989 when they altered the look of their historical shield symbol, slanting it slightly and making it a darker shade of green. They then put out a 1/2 hour professional video, starring Bob Hoskins, touting the new symbol, and bragging about the many millions they were spending on the rebranding. This kind of thing can involve truly jawdropping amounts of money.

caw

[RumpleTumbler]

It's looks like a burned hot dog with a face drawn on it.

[William Haskins]

It's looks like a burned hot dog with a face drawn on it.

may all those murdering bastards eventually appear so.

[MMWyrm]

It looks like Chewbacca - shaved - or wearing a lot of hair gel.

Argh.

[wordmonkey]

:rant:

I mean, come on!

You're telling me that all those clever folks in Psy-Ops who make the cool flyers they drop on enemies telling them to over throw the oppressors and get the candy and flowers ready for the invasion; or the clever folks who make up all the fake documents that fool border-crossing guards; are you telling me THIS Is the best they could do?

Because there is no way they outsourced this. No self-respecting design agency would deliver this crap.

This has all the hallmarks of some Deputy Director sitting in a meeting somewhere. Someone floats the idea of a logo and this guy sits up.

"Hey, my kid wants to got to Art School when he finishes High School. He has a computer and I've seen he makes his own webpages and stuff on MySpace. He can do it for us."

And everyone else is like, "Yeah, O.K., Doug. We were kidding, but whatever. We're trying to catch bad-guys here. Tell your kid to run with it."

And this is what the kid delivers. He had photoshop, had no idea what the difference between lo-res and hi-res was. Loved the "spray can" brush, 'cos it's like all edgy and urban. And then as he was messing and looking at the filters, he discovered the "Emboss" filter and just HAD to do that as well. And yeah, O.K., he's kinda crap at drawing and all, but if he does it all black, adds a couple of squiggles on the head and then uses that awesome emboss thing he found again, it looks rad!

To which everyone else said, "Yeah, O.K., Doug. Whatever. We're trying to catch bad-guys here. Tell your kid well done."

I don't care how much it costs (buck and a quarter looking at the quality - and that was too much). This is the best thing they could think of? This seemed like a good use of ANY resources? That some suggested it, is bad enough. That someone else gave that any consideration is worse. That they ran with the bloddy project is beyond belief. But having gone through all that bollox, THIS is what they proudly show to the world?

In my book, if you use crap design as a tool in international crime-fighting, the terrorists have already won.

[WarrenP]

I'll be surprised if this is indeed real. Now, before you all jump on that, hosting an image on the CIA site doesn't make it real. My initial reaction is that someone who runs the CIA site did this for fun, and it got out.

I work with the DoD, and you can't just "make a logo" without appropriations, and without a press release. If this were indeed a real CIA logo, there would have been a big press release where the genius who thought of it quotes himself about how great the logo would be. Not only would there be a pr online, there probably would have been an actual press event for the creators to describe the logo and how wonderful it will be, blah, blah, blah...

My company needed to create a logo about a joint project between us and the DoD, and it took four months, countless legal hurdles, determined press release schedules, and so on just to get approval - and we weren't even the government itself.

I'm thinking this will be on Snopes, or some other such site, as fake pretty soon.

Knowing the silly nature of the Federal government, I won't be overly surprised if I'm wrong, but at the moment, this doesn't seem real to me.

[Haggis]

Joke about it if you will, but I, for one, feel much safer now.

[Meerkat]

Twitchy, you're alive!

[melaniehoo]

At least now I know who I'm gonna call.

and I can't believe no one's said that yet.

[InfinityGoddess]

Knowing the silly nature of the Federal government, I won't be overly surprised if I'm wrong, but at the moment, this doesn't seem real to me.

Somehow, I find it hard-pressed to believe that it isn't real, given the current state of the government. Especially when you consider how they like to waste money on stupid projects all the time.

[WarrenP]

Somehow, I find it hard-pressed to believe that it isn't real, given the current state of the government. Especially when you consider how they like to waste money on stupid projects all the time.

I do know how much money they spend, on both stupid and non-stupid projects. Having worked with the government for years, I know first-hand it is hard to do anything like that (create a new logo) without fanfare and self-congratulations. That's the whole point. I can't find anything about this on the actual government sites, other than the image itself. Every story is about the image, or someone's blog talking about another blog, or the logo.

Like before, knowing the government, I won't be overly surprised if it is real, and I'm wrong. I'm more than willing to admit that... just not yet. :)

[WarrenP]

OK, since I'm a geek, and work in a related-field to this thread, I had to keep looking.

Here is what I found so far. This isn't a new logo. (It also isn't a new image made by someone having fun as I suggested in my first post in this thread; to be clear I was wrong on that.)

The first instance I can find of it is in October of 2001. It looks like it was an internal project, and doesn't seem like it was ever "used" so to speak, but since it was created is still part of the current website.

I don't know how to classify this yet. It does exist, is a real image, but looks like it never got off the ground other than the initial design in Oct 2001 (which is unchanged from the image today).

[wordmonkey]

So it WAS Doug's kid!

I called it!

[SHBueche]

Dang--Now I've got earworms (who ya' gonna call?).

[InfinityGoddess]

I don't know how to classify this yet. It does exist, is a real image, but looks like it never got off the ground other than the initial design in Oct 2001 (which is unchanged from the image today).


Probably because some people with better sense saw how silly it looked. :tongue That, and the obvious rip from The Ghostbusters.

[SHBueche]

Sorry I can't keep from laughing thinking of Twitchy, the Bomb Dog.

[JJ Cooper]

Snip

It's even more disconcerting that they would spend this much time on a logo and not enough time tracking real terrorists.

I suspect that agents wouldn't have been pulled from assignments to be part of this project.

JJ

[Jean Marie]

I suspect that agents wouldn't have been pulled from assignments to be part of this project.

JJ
Sure am glad you pointed out the obvious, JJ. Coming from a military man, it should be believed.

[robeiae]

The interesting thing here--to me, anyway--is how this "story" spread around the net. As WarrenP noted, it's not actually new. Yet ThinkProgress and others claim "the CIA has unveiled a new Terrorist Buster logo," as if it was new and a significant initiative. They don't even bother to research their claims, knowing full well that most will just gobble it up with nary a thought. Sad.

[William Haskins]

what else are they going to say, rob? what are their other headlines?

stark gets beat down by his own party; apologizes and cries

hillary renews vow to bomb iran to the stone-age

obama courts the homophobe vote

i mean, really...

[JJ Cooper]

Perhaps just a slow news day for conspiracy theorists anti-govt types.

JJ

[Joe270]

Yep, the 'rage against the U.S.', the 'rage against the CIA', and the Bush haters just jumped onto the bandwagon without hesitation. Below the OP link story was a long list of comments, sorta fun to read in retrospect. Now that's rather embarrassing, I think.

Just goes to show you gotta check your facts, especially in the internet age.

[Jean Marie]

Perhaps just a slow news day for conspiracy theorists anti-govt types.

JJ
Some days are like that, y'know. Can't all be banner headliners.

[WittyandorIronic]

WHAT??? The CIA might have a sense of humor? This is crap...someone should have told me!