LITTLE CHEF, BIG ISSUE

Today's Daily Mail reports that British roadside restaurant chain Little Chef has confirmed that its well-known logo, depicting a plump chef in some 375 locations around the British Isles, is to be put on a diet. The company has commissioned a slimmed down version of the chef character without his tummy, apparently in response to the growing awareness of healthy eating.

According to Tim Scoble, chief executive of Little Chef:

"We get accusations that he's overweight, so he's going to lose his paunch."

A company spokesman confirmed that new designs had been drawn up and said that customers would be asked their views. Scoble however warned that the future of the logo, which has been used for the past 32 years, was far from assured.

"There would be an uproar from our customers if we got rid of it completely. It won't go in the next 18 months but in two or three years' time we'll look to see whether it remains part of our branding."

The IPKat wonders whether a change to the restyled, slimmed-down chef would actually produce the opposite result: the current fat chef is at least a visual warning to consumers that if they eat lots of Little Chef food they can expect to fatten up. A slimline chef might put into their minds the notion that this otherwise expected event would not occur. More importantly, Little Chef should remember to ask about the underlying trade mark issues: will they need to apply to register the fresh logo and will use of the skinny chef still count as use of the registered fat one, if the mark should be faced with an application for revocation?

Little Chef here; big chef here
Another slimmed down fattie logo here (before) and here (after)