Companies switch up their logos to encourage social distancing

On the Splash screen of KakaoTalk appeared Kakao character Ryan wearing a face mask instead of the service’s usual speech bubble logo from March 26 to Sunday. Kakao said it temporarily changed the screen image of its services, including KakaoTalk, to participate in the social distancing campaign.

With the South Korean government extending its social distancing campaign until April 19 due to the spread of the coronavirus, information technology (IT) companies have begun to participate in the campaign by temporarily changing their homepage images, company logos, or characters.

Messenger app NateOn separated its blue and yellow company symbols, and business messenger Channel Talk put a face mask on its speech bubble logo to visualize social distancing.

Portal sites have also begun to promote awareness by spacing out their logos. Nate widened the spaces between each letter of its logo on its main page, and Daum placed each letter of its logo diagonally and inserted the caption. “See you next time!” Naver blurred the center of its logo and put the caption “social distancing” below the letters on both ends.

While IT companies began the campaign in Korea, major corporations outside the country are keeping up with such campaign. McDonald pulled apart the golden arches on its logo and Coca Cola ran an ad in New York’s Times Square, where each letter of its logo was spaced out. Carmakers, including Hyundai Motor, Mercedes Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen, have also shared an image on their social media, separating their logos to spread the message of social distancing.


Do-Young Kwak now@donga.com