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Logos—they’re the concentrated sweat and tears of brilliant artists crafting away to create the ‘perfect’ image representing their client’s brand. After hours and days of toil, deleted drafts, and angry coffee breaks, the final version’s ready. It’s being rolled out worldwide… and that’s when thousands of people report seeing a completely different image than they intended.

When Headspace content director Freddie Campion shared how his wife had thought that Colonel Sanders had a stick body instead of a bowtie in the KFC logo, other Twitter users pitched in with their own hilarious misinterpretations of well-known logos. Check ‘em out below and upvote your fave tweets, dear Pandas. Just don’t say we didn’t warn you—you’ll have a hard time unseeing these! Be sure to share your own misunderstood logo moments in the comments.

This isn’t the first time that Bored Panda has written about people misinterpreting the KFC logo and the stick body now being seared into our minds for a long, long time. I’d forgotten all about it a few months after learning the truth, but Freddie brought everything back. And I knew just who to talk to about all of this. Curious? Read on!

Bored Panda spoke about Freddie’s thread with comedy writer, author, and musical comedian Ariane Sherine, who had previously gone viral for her tweet about her friend misinterpreting the KFC logo as well. Twitter users brought Freddie’s thread to her attention as well.

I was incredibly curious to find out whether Freddie’s wife was Ariane’s friend. It sounded like too much of a coincidence. Maybe this was a sign from the Universe? Alas! Ariane confirmed to Bored Panda that there’s no connection between her friend and Freddie.

“They’re clearly kindred spirits though! I should hook them up (though Freddie’s wife might not like that much!),” Ariane joked.

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I wanted to find out the best way to make myself forget that Colonel Sanders looks like he has a stick body and Ariane made my day with her quips. “Why try to unsee the stick body? Just accept it. Colonel Sanders is like a stick because he doesn’t eat his own products! That is not the body of a man who has eaten much fried chicken,” she shared.

Unfortunately, acceptance seems like the only path forward, dear Readers. Hopefully, we’ll forget all about stick-Sanders over the next few months… until someone else makes a viral thread about the logo. With Freddie’s thread having gotten over 425k likes, KFC couldn’t ask for better exposure.

According to Comedian Ariane, logo designers can try and minimize the chances of their illustrations being misinterpreted by running them past as many people as possible. The bigger the pool, the bigger the chance of spotting that something’s off. However, Ariane hopes they don’t do that because then there’d be no hilarious misunderstandings.

#7

Misunderstood-Logos

of_utley Report

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#13

Misunderstood-Logos

willington Report

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Pamda Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just in case anyone is curious, the Chinese symbols for New York are 纽约

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#18

Misunderstood-Logos

CBJ4Ever Report

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#21

Misunderstood-Logos

KatDalziel Report

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Alexis D.
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It's a Siren, actually. Going off the nautical theme of Captain Starbuck

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Lil_Tae_29
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the hidden stuff in logo's video it said that it stands for the fact that she is infact a mermaid or a siren, im shocked too

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spirit wolf
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

She is Melusine, the alchemical siren and twin tailed mermaid. I would like to believe the connection is more than just face value.

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Ed
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

To understand what's going on, you need to see the original logo that was brown. Google it.

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Carlota
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The double tailed siren is a medieval symbol used in boats the founders saw in a book about maritime legends, they decided to use it because Seattle is a port city and coffee is normally exported by boat

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Sara Holt
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Pretty loose connection to the quality of the coffee. Just my opinion.

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Rainbow Panda
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The original showed a mermaid lady with two tails. 🧜‍♀️

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Morgan Coffee
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The logo used to show her full tail with a sort of butt shape at the bottom as each side went up, but they changed it because some group of people somewhere thought it was dirty.

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Jodi Adams
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Interesting! https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronaldholden/2017/03/04/mermaid-siren-princess-how-the-starbucks-logo-evolved/

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Doubleheader
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The original logos showed more of her tail so it made more sense. I actually prefer those ones to the minimalist one.

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Step Twirl
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It after a famous piece of art .. the image was cropped from the original version because people thought it was too vulgar .

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Dan rider
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Just think of it... Each leg is like a mermaid's tail and she's weird and gross

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Terry Gasca
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I avoid Starfucks, the demon warns me to never taste that poison

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J
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If she's a double tailed mermaid, is she doing the splits?

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backatya
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

who cares their coffe is way over priced and people are stupid enough to go buy it

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Valerie Anne
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment has been deleted.

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Robert Grout
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I live near Seattle and originally the image was a wider view, basically showing a 2 tailed mermaid with legs spread

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#25

Misunderstood-Logos

DocBender Report

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Sleazy Weaver
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Wow, that's such a great design! I saw both the letters & the picture straight away. It's simple & to the point but unique enough to be memorable. Sorry, as someone with a graphic design passion I'm geeking out over this! It's genius!

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#28

Misunderstood-Logos

birdlaw101 Report

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Marshk
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm SO GLAD this one is here. I always thought it was a man delivering mail. I'm in my thirties and just realized it's an eagle lol

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#29

Misunderstood-Logos

StephaninAdam Report

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