When branding goes bad

Turns out that having a big letter Z on your plane turns off customers in 2022.

Seems like only yesterday that “Q” was the most problematic letter of the alphabet. Now it’s “Z”, as a Japanese budget airline is finding out the hard way:

Despite being less than three years old, Japanese low-cost carrier Zipair Tokyo will be changing its logo to avoid confusion and potential conflict over its similarity with the Russian war symbol. The letter "Z" has often been seen as a pro-war symbol on the sides of Russian military equipment in the Russia-Ukraine war.

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For Zipair, the letter "Z" logo was developed by a creative engagement agency based in Tokyo, Six Inc. Set in Roman font, the "Z" logo is a combination of the first letter in ZIP followed by a space the airline calls 'Infinite Blank'. According to Zipair, the logo encapsulates the attitude to infinitely pursue services that meet the needs of its passengers.

The elaborate branding for which the airline probably spent billions of yen is shown below. Reminds me of the joke about the artist who drew two dots on a blan…