WTF? MTV Currently Branding Headphones and Earbuds With Original “Music Television” Logo Despite 2010 Rebranding Effort That Ditched Legacy
In February 2010, MTV decided to drop the term “Music Television” from its logo. For the first time in 29 years, MTV would stand for, well, MTV — or nothing, depending on your perspective.
This purposeful rebranding was derided by most old school fans of music video. In an article in the Los Angeles Times, MTV’s head of marketing Tina Exarhos explained in the following way:
“The people who watch it today, they don’t refer to MTV as music television. They don’t have the same emotional connection that, say, the people who are writing about [the logo change] do.”
So with this ardent move toward rebranding their property just a few short years ago, we found it significantly interesting that during a weekend visit to Best Buy, some MTV-branded personal listening equipment caught our eye. It was headphones and earbuds with the original MTV “Music Television” logo on them. We checked to make sure this wasn’t vintage stock, and low and behold, the box was dated 2012.
So what’s that about? For a network that seems to be hellbent on branding itself as NOT being defined as music television, why create anything new with the old logo? We figure that the answer is as plain as a cash register ring-up bell…which is something we don’t hear anymore either…
In related news, Junk Food clothing (“The Original Vintage T-Shirt Company”) had been selling newly printed MTV shirts with the old logo for a while, but Urban Outfitters doesn’t seem to be stocking them anymore…
For more on the origin of the “Music Television” logo, check out MTV staff pioneer Fred Seibert’s blog. Fred is the owner of Frederator Studios, which produces the supercool Adventure Time series).