USF to Abandon New Logo, Branding After Student Backlash

On the first day of spring, Promo Marketing looked at the cold shoulder that the University of South Florida (USF) community had been showing the school’s overseers for their implementation of an (expensive) academic logo that too closely, in their eyes, resembles the Merrill Lynch logo. And with the school's sports teams using still using the old design, the whole matter made us wonder why the administrators would even need two separate logos in the first place. But it appears the backlash finally became too much for USF, as the school announced it is not only moving away from the academic logo that inspired a student-crafted online petition for its removal, but also returning its branding to its “traditional green-and-gold color palette.”

As expected, those who had held the intended academic logo’s very existence in contempt took to Twitter to voice their feelings on the matter, with a mix of comic and serious reflections making apparent that few, if any, folks will miss the Merrill Lynch-wannabe.

The new USF logo will be killed Monday. I wrote things about it. https://t.co/mkslDbOydI

— Collin Sherwin (@CollinSherwin) May 3, 2019

pic.twitter.com/9fJzLgaS3L

— Steeg™️ (@SteegLife) May 3, 2019

Today’s announcement of @USF adopting the @USFAthletics Iconic “U” logo campus wide is a huge step forward to erase the dividing line between us and them. We are one University. #GoBulls

— 𝕁𝕖𝕗𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕪 𝔽𝕚𝕤𝕙𝕞𝕒𝕟 (@USFironbull) May 6, 2019

Barely eight months old, the castigated symbol, which the Tampa Bay Times has checking in at about $1 million in cost, will gradually disappear over the summer, though opponents will have to tolerate its presence on campus store goods until said products sell out.

As we mentioned back in our March account of the backlash, this whole situation reveals the power of the masses to put authority figures on alert regarding artistic representation. The USF community had next to no interest in having separation between its athletic and academic logos, and rallied against the presence of a distinct identifier for each department. In a commendable case of if-it-ain’t-broken-don’t-fix-it, the once-disappointed parties are now bullish about the added chances to have the horns-heavy athletic logo reveal their pride as representatives of one of the nation’s most esteemed places of higher learning.