Definition clus·ter·fuck:
/ˈkləstərˌfək/
“a disastrously mishandled situation or undertaking.”
Canadian Energy Centre changing logo following backlash by Tom Ross with files from The Canadian Press, Dec 19, 2019, 660CityNews
(CREDIT: Canadian Energy Centre, Facebook)
CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Alberta’s Canadian Energy Centre is changing its logo, just one week after they launched.
The centre released a statement Thursday afternoon saying it is taking steps to replace the logo after learning the icon is used by another company.
Amid some backlash over their logo, the @CDNEnergyCentre is taking steps to replace it. People online have noticed the logo is awfully similar to that of @ProgressSW #yyc #ab #ableg
A U.S.-based software giant says it was looking into whether Alberta’s new energy war room violated the company’s trademarked logo.
Progress Software Corp., based in the Greater Boston area, made the comment in a brief email statement and on Twitter after people on social media called attention to similarities in the two logos.
Hi, @ProgressSW.
Just wanted you to know that a controversial new publicly funded propaganda department promoting Alberta’s oil & gas industry (@CDNEnergyCentre) has evidently decided to steal your logo for its own.
Thank you and to everyone who has reached out regarding our logo usage. We have received all of the messages and are looking into this immediately.
The $30 million energy centre was created to fight back against what the Alberta government deems “misinformation” against the energy industry.
660 NEWS has reached out to Progress Software for comment.
A few tweets on the slippery matter:
Steve Yanover@digik9 Replying to @660NEWS
A $30 Million lawsuit seems appropriate. Also, not a great start for a branch of the government dedicated to the truth as they see it, or I guess because it’s a logo of a different colour they feel it’s an alternative version of the truth.
ernadette@bradleybernie55 Replying to @660NEWS
I’ve always said Conservatives have no creativity. They can;t come up with any original ideas so they “borrow”, see, steal.
G McThink@redsnoopy69 Replying to @660NEWS
The #WarRoom will not surrender there Logo.
The Moat has been filled draw bridge has been raised.
DEFCON Level 2.
Raven@Raven48389202 Replying to @660NEWS
Their used to doing everything on the shady side. No big surprise here. How many millions to fix this fiasco?
Ian Patton@5stringboog Replying to @660NEWS @LukaszukAB
Looks like @jkenney doesn’t care about copyright. #WarRoom – what crap.
Dale Boyd@DaleWBoyd Replying to @660NEWS @LukaszukAB
It’s not “facing criticism” it is clearly stolen.
Alberta’s oil and gas ‘war room’ changing logo following complaints it copied U.S. data company by Jeff Lawrence, Dec 19, 2019, CTVNews Edmonton
EDMONTON — Alberta’s oil and gas “war room” says it is changing its logo after learning it used the same image as a U.S.-based data company.
The Canadian Energy Centre (CEC) is a $30-million project to promote the province’s energy industry, and to investigate claims that foreign-funded campaigns are attacking Alberta oil and gas.
“We’re here to help raise understanding of the Canadian energy sector’s value to this country and the world, through the sharing of knowledge, facts and ideas,” the CEC says on its website.
But on Thursday, some pointed out that it appeared to have “shared” its logo with Progress, a data connectivity solutions company that employs more than 1,500 workers and has offices in 16 countries.
The Progress logo, three geometric shapes in a green circle, does appear to be identical to the Canadian Energy Centre’s logo—the same three shapes inside a blue circle.
Western Hemlox@WesternHemlox
Hi, @ProgressSW.
Just wanted you to know that a controversial new publicly funded propaganda department promoting Alberta’s oil & gas industry (@CDNEnergyCentre) has evidently decided to steal your logo for its own.
Progress ✔@ProgressSW
Thank you and to everyone who has reached out regarding our logo usage. We have received all of the messages and are looking into this immediately.
7:35 AM – Dec 19, 2019
“We have been made aware of this and are looking into it currently,” a Progress spokesperson said in an emailed response.
In a statement, the CEC said it is taking steps to replace the logo, which was produced by marketing agency Lead & Anchor.
“This is an unfortunate situation but we are committed to making the necessary corrections to our visual identity,” said Tom Olsen, CEC CEO and managing director. “We understand this was a mistake and we are in discussions with our agency to determine how it happened.”
The marketing agency will pay for any costs associated with removal and adjustment of the logo.
CEC said a new logo is on the way and it’s working with Lead & Anchor to determine how it was used in the first place.
The war room, officially launched last week, is a private entity owned by Alberta despite being funded by the province, and is not subject to freedom of information laws.
Premier Jason Kenney has said it will take a fact-based approach to countering “misinformation” about Alberta’s energy industry.
Logo a no-go: Alberta energy war room pulls emblem from U.S. company by The Canadian Press, Dec 19, 2019, Calgary Herald
Alberta’s energy war room says it is pulling and replacing its logo after learning that it was already being used by another company.
The war room, officially known as the Canadian Energy Centre [the name which kopykatkenney copied from the feds!], says the logo was developed by a Calgary-based marketing agency that will bear all costs for the reconfiguration. [Who believes a word the war room says? Not me, not ever.]
Tom Olsen, who heads the war room, says in a statement that the situation is unfortunate and the centre is working to determine how it happened. [How much will that cost us taxpayers? Another million or two? ]
The statement does not say how much was paid for the original logo. [FOIP IT!]
Progress Software, a U.S-based international applications firm, had said earlier in the day that it was looking into the energy centre’s use of the trademarked Progress logo.
The logos are identical, stylized sharp-angled depictions of what appear to be radiating waves, except the Progress one is emerald-green and the war room version is two shades of blue.
The war room is a provincial government corporation receiving $30 million a year to highlight achievements in [progagandize and lie about] Alberta’s oil and gas sector and to refute what it [It or industry? Or Gwyn Morgan, not known for his honesty?] deems to be misinformation on the industry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2019.
U.S. software giant checking on logo used by Alberta’s energy war room by The Canadian Press, Dec 19, 2019, Calgary Herald
A U.S.-based software giant says it is looking into whether Alberta’s new energy war room has violated the company’s trademarked logo.
Progress Software Corp., based in the Greater Boston area, made the comment in a brief email statement and on Twitter after people on social media called attention to similarities in the two logos.
Progress Software’s emblem is a stylized emerald-green, sharp-angled depiction of what appear to be radiating waves.
Last week, the war room, officially known as the Canadian Energy Centre, unveiled a logo that appears to be the same except for the colour.
The war room is a provincial government corporation receiving $30 million a year to highlight achievements in [progagandize and lie about] Alberta’s oil and gas sector and to refute what it [It or industry? Or Gwyn Morgan, not known for his honesty?] deems to be misinformation on the industry.
Grady Semmens, director of content for the centre, could not be immediately reached for comment. [Watch Grady run away to the USA with Ovarytits]
In this war, the logo is the first casualty by Don Braid, Dec 19, 2019, Calgary Herald
When you’re already a target, it’s a bad idea to hang out extra bull’s-eyes. But it’s happening to the UCP’s $30-million Canadian Energy Centre, a.k.a. the War Room.
The centre’s official logo suggests arrows pointing upward and to the right (of course!). But this very image, identical except for colour, is already in use by a big American digital outfit called Progress Software Corp.
The Boston-based company found out quickly when the comparison started spreading on social media. [!!!!!]
Progress Software is “looking into” possible violation of trademark — plainly indicated with the little ® — by Alberta’s publicly funded energy warrior.
The Canadian Energy Centre was working Thursday to erase all trace of the logo, hoping to make it a bad memory by Friday. [fat chance the war room will succeed. “Logo a no-go” is etched forever in our brains and on our twitter accounts and websites!]
The CEC will come out with another logo soon, after checking carefully to ensure it’s not the flag of a major nation.
But there is another little problem. The graphics were provided to the CEC under contract by Calgary company, Lead & Anchor.
“This is an unfortunate situation, but we are committed to making the necessary corrections to our visual identity,” Tom Olsen, the CEC’s chief executive officer, said in a release Thursday afternoon.
“We understand this was a mistake and we are in discussions with our agency to determine how it happened.”
The question is how a logo already in use was assumed to be original. And did the CEC actually pay for that?
Olsen didn’t want to be quoted beyond the release. An email and phone calls to Lead & Anchor went unanswered. By Thursday evening, Lead & Anchor’s website had been taken private
According to his written note, Lead & Anchor was chosen from nine respondents to a post on Communo, another Calgary marketing agency that offers “All the right talent All in one Place.”
All this falls well short of a fatal fiasco. But it’s one of those dangerous image-settings for any new organization, let alone a project as controversial as the CEC.
And it proved to be just one clanger in a startup week that produced two others.
First, content director Grady Semmens responded to a critical column in the Medicine Hat News with a note that sounded like an order to print a CEC rebuttal.
The language was ambiguous, but social media warriors who track the CEC’s every move went into a frenzy.
The note was immediately compared to the Social Credit Accurate News and Information Act of 1937.
That infamous act would have required newspapers to print clarifications and reveal sources on demand. It was declared unconstitutional. More than 90 Alberta newspapers won a Pulitzer citation for defending freedom of the press.
A single note from the CEC to a newspaper was hardly in that league. But it made an instant resistance hero of Jeremy Appel, the tough young reporter-columnist in the Hat. [tough? or with fabulous humour, intelligence and wonderful courage?]
Then there was Olsen’s own little misstep. In a Global News Calgary interview, he said, “We are not about attacking, we are about disproving true facts.” [Ooo la la, Freudien slip?]
Olsen says that was obviously not “purposeful” and he, in fact, meant exactly the opposite. [Perhaps he meant to say the opposite, but couldn’t stop himself from thinking the truth and out the truth slipped! How inconvenient.]
The CEC, if it’s to have any impact on perceptions of the energy industry, has to be seen as reasonable, informative, fair — and competent.
It also needs to have a wide reach across Canada and into Europe and other areas where Western Canada’s energy is often maligned and misunderstood.
Above all, I think, it has to look right past the inevitable criticism from many Albertans.
The job is not to fight at home, but to change minds in far places with research and facts. The whole expensive enterprise could fail if this turns into an Alberta brawl.
Also, try not to use somebody else’s trademarked logo.
Disclosure: Tom Olsen and Grady Semmens are both former Herald journalists, as is CEC staffer Shawn Logan. Claudia Cattaneo, former Postmedia columnist, also works with the CEC.
Some hilarious comments!
Dallas Dole
They are suppose to be a trust worthy information portal and they screw up the approval of their very own branding package. You can’t make this stuff up.
ionut c
Kenny should sue the consultant… And ask for damages…
Dallas Dole to ionut c
The embarrassment is priceless.
George Morenstein
Either I’m missing something as innocuous as a ‘potentially’ misappropriated and little recognizable logo causing so much flap, or this writer is suffering from ‘Professor Moriarity’ syndrome. Mistakes happen.
Dallas Dole to George Morenstein
Any entire field of law has been developed to address these, mistakes. Everyone should sue everyone else. Their first foray into the community and they expose themselves to a law suite. Off to a great start! As a private company my guess is their risk management department…probably their insurance company (if that content mill has one)….is not happy…their insurance premiums are probably 30% of their annual budget.
James Stirling
A $30 mln waste of taxpayer money for failed UCP political hacks. These guys want to take on the Pembina Institute & Greenpeace but can’t figure out how not to plagiarize a copyrighted trademark. Sounds Trumpian, laugh or cry. [Couldn’t figure it out, or intentionally copied it, or Kenney chose it, with all thinking, “to get around violating copyright, and make it look original and creative, we’ll change the colour.” The logos are identical, would be one hell of a coincidence for that to happen by chance.]
Rob Davies
Mr. Bumble is now setting up a panel on who to blame for the logo and a photo of Toronto as the HQ.
$30m / year……
For real details on the war room: