I want so much to love this Dick’s Sporting Goods commercial! I’ve written about their commercials before and the newer spots are full of inspiring and humble athletes, qualities most people appreciate… qualities I hope to display when I have the chance. This ad below is nearly perfect except for one glaring problem. Check it out and see if you can guess where Dick’s could use just one more editing update…
What did you notice that doesn’t quite fit in 2024? If it’s the dated logo, you’d be right! I can’t think of any other way to say it than this: The logo is terrible for TV. It’s like it was designed using Microsoft Paint by a high school freshman in 1995. The teacher told the class to come up with a slick logo for Dick’s and that one student who isn’t very artistic created a green block, used a varsity-style font, and the only way to include anything sporty was to make the apostrophe out of sports balls. And what even is the white circle under the baseball!?
Nothing about the logo is smooth, remarkable, or modern in any way. In fact, the Dick’s logo hasn’t had any significant changes in 30 years. That’s fine when a brand’s logo has a timeless quality to it. I’m thinking of the Nike swoosh, the old Florida State logo (can you tell I’m still bitter about this?), the Chevrolet bowtie, these have been around forever and it would be ludicrous to fix something that’s not broken, right? But in the case of Dick’s Sporting Goods, the logo definitely needs updating.
There might be some good news here, though. I watched a few other ads on the Dick’s YouTube page and the logo they used is much better, even using DSG as a brand symbol. Check this one out…
Maybe their marketing team has recognized the need to get into the 21st century with the rest of us. Nostalgia is fine and all, but logos created in the mid-90s that look like they’re from the mid-90s have got to go. It’s kind of funny to me how much I want this change because usually I like things to stay the same, especially logos (ie. the Florida State logo change all but ruined my excitement around college football). But there are cases where I love the logo change… KIA, for example. Have you noticed their new logo on cars driving around your town? It’s not perfect (parallel lines matter, right!?) but it looks so much better than the logo they used as they introduced themselves to American consumers.
If you’re still using Microsoft Paint, Word, clipart, Power Point, wingdings, emojis, your kid’s pre-school artwork to create a brand identity, just stop. Go outside for a hike and think about your life choices. It’s 2024 and these logos need to look like it. It won’t take much for Dick’s to have one of the best sports commercials out there. They’re 99% there already. Just use a different, more modern version of their logo.
Here’s the extended ad that will inspire you to get bigger, stronger, faster!
-Out of the Wilderness
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