Viewer mistakes NBC peacock for gay pride avatar
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As news of the Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality spread, many companies and organizations switched their Facebook profile photos to rainbow themed tones — and one Little Rock, Ark. viewer lashed out at his local NBC affiliate for changing its logo to a rainbow themed one.
The only problem — it hadn’t.
Facebook user Don Stair, who posted his displeasure to the station’s Facebook page, was actually viewing KARK-TV‘s logo that was, as it has for years, includes the NBC peacock.
The NBC peacock is one of the most recognized brand symbols in the world — and has always featured multicolored plumes.
Originally introduced in 1957 and featuring 11 feathers, the logo was designed to mark the advent of color television broadcasting — and a not-so-subtle hint at the network being “proud as a peacock” for being the first with this technology.
The logo was used until 1976, when the network switched to a trapezoid themed logo.
But the peacock made its return in 1979 in a simplified form and placed over the trapezoid shape.
In 1986, Chermayeff & Geismar redesigned the logo again, making it even simpler (and abstract) — taking on its present form. Since then, NBC has applied a variety of effects, such as a sheen or “gel” to the logo at different times, but the basic shape and colors have remained the same.
All this apparently alluded Stair — and he took great offense to the station’s use of the rainbow hued logo, posting this to the station’s page:
The station responded with the rather straightforward comment you see above, but other viewers lashed out at Stair — one even posting a rainbow-ized version of Stair’s own Facebook photo to the station’s page:
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tags
Facebook, KARK, logo, logos, NBC, nbc peacock
categories
Branding, Featured, Networks