As you may or may not have noticed, Red Lobster released a new ad campaign last month. The campaign includes a series of tv ads that feature the real people of Red Lobster. You can see the ads, which were developed by Grey New York, on the brand’s Youtube page. The release of these ads marks the beginning of a whole new direction for the Red Lobster brand. Along with the ads, they have released a new slogan, “Sea Food Differently”, new website design, menu design, a new restaurant design, and a slick new logo.
Personally, I think this new direction is great. The new logo is much cleaner, more modern, and typographically much better. The new web design is functional and well organized, and a marked improvement over the old one. The new slogan is catchy and the ads, I think, do a great job of humanizing the chain and giving the brand a more “gourmet” kind of feel.
What do you think? Sound off in the comments.
Tags: advertising, branding, design, graphic design, logo, marketing, news, rebrand, slogan, web design
It’s in the right direction but needs some refinements.
I do prefer the older lobster illustration as is has more character. The new typography is a better but the spacial relationship between the name and tag needs to be balanced, they fight each other. And the kerning on RED LOBSTER is off.
With the exception of the excellent slogan “sea food differently” and the logo type, the overall logo appears to be a giant step backwards. A picture will always be worth a thousand words – with the lobster being diminished not only in size as well as being obscured by a background of black, the immediacy of the message has been lost. Personal opinion but the old version better and more quickly communicates from greater distances (as per signage) than the new. The new illustration style appears cheap and cheesy and the choice of type for the tag line lacks individual symmetry and contrast. Easy but fun to be critical.
Twitter: henshercreative
says:
While I disagree that it looks cheap and cheesy, I do agree that the use of the giant black rectangle is questionable. It feels heavy. I think, as Stu points out, the lobster has lost some of it’s ‘down East’ charm as well. And ya, the spatial relationship between the name and tagline could use some tweaking and ya, there are a few other finicky type complaints (You’re right, it IS easy AND fun to be critical!). On balance though, I think the identity as whole holds together very nicely and brings the chain up a notch or two on the dining ladder. It still says ‘casual dining’, but now it’s more like ‘classy casual dining’.
Hi!
I would agree that the new logo is better but as you say there are small refinements that need addressing. The text and the background seem really tight and confined at the bottom especially (cramped). It’s like they ran out of black ink on the black background. I would say that it is not finished yet – a really good start!
The new lobster illustration is more up to date although the old one is good too but… for something else.
BTW – Great blog on pricing – well done! I should to send it to some clients who “really” need it!! My theory on nickel and dime-ing these days is that we (everyone) are getting so used to getting consumer goods for so cheap, that we unconsciously want the same for our services (design and everything else) – but this is another subject for another time.
I had been thinking about the Red Lobster campaign this morning. Thanks for showing the old and new logos, I like the new one better. But I was pondering “I sea food differently.” That’s what they have the people on the commercials saying. I like it, and was analyzing what I liked. They are not just making a play on “see food differently,” but also are treating the two words “sea food” as a verb instead of a noun. I like it when folks push the language that way.
I like both the logos but the older one looks very plain. I prefer more the looks of the newer lobster. A logo is the identity of a business, it speaks about the type of business we run. People get to know about us by just having a look at the logo.
Personally I like the old logo better and think the new logo looks cheap, however I took one piece of the new logo and added it to the old logo. I like the end result and would like to submit it to you if you are interested and will provide me with an email address or fax number. Thanks
I think the new campaign makes Red Lobstwr appear cheap. The personal accounts of people talking just seems like a Apple bees commercial instead.