Corporate logos -- do they suffer as we do?

The IPKat had a good chuckle, and a good think too, concerning the corporate logo parodies published in Corporate Pundit and drawn to his attention last week by his friend Tomasz Rychlicki. There are several different schools of thought relating to parody of this nature. One is that it is unfair to the brand owner and ultimately corrodes the value of the brand; another is that it is just good clean fun; a third is that it is not so much a reflection on the brands parodied as on the diminished aspirations of the consumers whose support and loyalty brought them to prominence in the first place. In the case of Chrysler and Ford this is particularly so: the products remain desirable but it is the reduced purchasing of the power that results
in weak sales as even many of the most loyal drivers find that their new or replacement purchases must be delayed or deferred.

To parodies such as this, the best sort of response is probably "grin and bear it" -- not least since even the choice of brands to parody is a sort of compliment: these are the logos we choose to accompany us on our long hike through the nether world of diminished consumer aspirations. And these are the brands that we will return to when our spending power is restored ... if they're still there.