Missile Defense Agency Logo Upsets Right: Comparisons To Obama Campaign, Islamic Crescent

The new Missile Defense Agency logo has bombed in certain circles.

Critics say it looks to much like any number of well-known symbols, including the logo for the Iranian space agency:

The new Pepsi logo:

The Islamic star and crescent symbol:

And, perhaps most controversial to some people, the Obama campaign logo:

The similarities have rankled a number of right-wing websites, and generated a lot of buzz with online commenters.

Fox News reports that this isn't the designer's first government project:

The logo, which first appeared on the Missile Defense Web site in the fall, was designed by TMP Government, a marketing and communications firm that has managed Web site redesigns and logos for numerous government agencies, including recovery.gov and more than a dozen Defense and intelligence-related sites.

So we ask ...

Quick Poll

What Do You Think Of When You Look At The New MDA Logo?

Obama's Campaign Logo

Pepsi

Islamic Star And Crescent

Iranian Space Agency

The Missile Defense Agency

Share your vote on Facebook so your friends can take this poll

Comments

[Wide Stance]

10:16 AM on 03/03/2010

I don't object for political reasons--like the Obstructionists--but I strongly object on aesthetic and semantic grounds. That has to be one of the worst logos ever. It's a complete failure to communicate.

[rf dude]

10:06 AM on 03/03/2010

" Robot hand pinching a bit of toilet tissue"

But, why is the tissue red...

[Wide Stance]

07:21 PM on 03/02/2010

I think: Iran has a space agency?

[Pod-gers]

07:26 PM on 02/28/2010

It looks Masonic to me.

[ruffmama]

09:23 PM on 02/27/2010

there is no choice for "none of the above"

[Pod-gers]

07:25 PM on 02/28/2010

I didn't see mine there, so didn't get to vote.

[MuchMadness]

06:04 PM on 02/27/2010

That is clearly the Star of Bethlehem in the upper right corner of the logo. The three red swooshes represent the Magi, who, along with their camels, wore Nike walking shoes on their long trek. It looks like the Pepsi logo because Pepsi cola is a great thirst quencher on long trips.

[blucolintellect]

08:16 PM on 02/27/2010

Pure genius.

[gregstevens]

05:38 PM on 02/27/2010

In psychology, there is a phenomenon known as "chronic priming." If you have something that is constantly on your mind -- consciously or unconsciously -- it will influence the way you see things. If you are presented with an image that is abstract or ambiguous, someone with "chronic priming" will be biased to interpret it in a certain way.

In popular media, this is the root of the joke where the guy in the therapist's office looks at the ink blots, and to him every single one looks like something sexual. If you always have sex on the mind, then you will "see sex" in everything.

But in psychology, this is actually what the ink blots are for: discovering the types of things that a person's mind gravitates toward, because that tells you something about what they are obsessed with or what is on their mind the most.

What the person sees in the ink blot tells you something about the person.... not the ink blot.

And this symbol is a classic ink blot. To one extent or another, it looks like LOTS of different things.

So the real question is, what does it tell us about a person, when that person looks at it and IMMEDIATELY sees an Islamic symbol? Or a campaign logo?

What does that tell us about what that person is obsessed with?

[sole]

04:55 PM on 03/03/2010

nice analogy.... and cool logo!

[gregstevens]

05:24 PM on 02/27/2010

The logo looks like a diagram of light coming into the eye and hitting the retina that I saw in my highschool health class.

I suspect a conspiracy of opthamologists.

[pottedferne]

06:41 PM on 02/27/2010

LOL..........

[JJinWI]

11:54 AM on 02/27/2010

All this speculation is a load of crap. This logo was used prior to the 2008 election and it has no link to any political campaign.

Just more distraction to accompany the obstruction tactics.

More lies from the GOP, plain and simple.

[jamaicalover]

01:11 PM on 02/27/2010

Rachel Maddow debunked this on her show last. It would have been nice if CNN and FOX had done the same.

[JJinWI]

03:13 PM on 02/27/2010

Like I said, more distraction and obstruction from the critical issues of what is supposed to be getting accomplished in Washington.

Meanwhile, 290 bills(many bi-partisan) sit in the Senate after the House has passed them.

It appears that the GOP is more comfortable collecting their wages and benefits than they are at doing their work in the Senate. Complain, distract, obstruct, point fingers.......and they actually expect to gain seats in the mid-term elections?

[OswegoKayaker]

11:00 AM on 02/27/2010

My first impression was that it looked like Obama's campaign logo and I thought, "how wonderful, maybe Rushbo and Queen Beck's heads will explode.

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

03:18 AM on 02/27/2010

I remember an old Peanuts cartoon where Charlie Brown and Lucy and Linus were lying on a grassy hill looking at clouds. Lucy asks Linus what he sees and he gives an elaborate answer - very detailed. Then she asks Charlie Brown what he sees and he says he is embarrassed to say it, but all he sees is a horse.

[Tunghoy]

02:05 PM on 02/26/2010

The right wing are like Andorians without antennae and blue complexion.

"Some people argue for a reason. Andorians simply argue."
-- Ambassador Sarek

[Hopalongpoppyseed]

03:19 AM on 02/27/2010

Hey Marklar!

[disgustedcitizen]

12:11 PM on 02/26/2010

OMG! These paranoid morons see terrorists everywhere they look. You would think that every Muslim in the world was running around with bombs strapped to his/her body just looking for a chance to blow up some God-fearing Christians, instead of a couple of hundred, (if that many). Islamic extremists.
Get a grip, Right wingnuts, before you blow a fuse!

[conniec]

11:33 PM on 02/26/2010

Aw, let 'em blow a fuse. Better yet - maybe they'll all flee to an undisclosed location in the Alaska wilderness, to prepare for "The End".

[pointyheadprodigy]

11:52 AM on 02/26/2010

From Monty Python's "National Radio Hour", album (and the whithering recesses of my mind), "HELP, HELP! There's a lobster loose! Everyone spread yourselves with lemon and butter so with to protect youselves".

[Copitlism]

11:40 AM on 02/26/2010

Say.. I think they are on to something here. South Carolina has a crescent moon on it's flag...it must be a hotbed of islamic activity.

[CAHertzfe]

04:45 PM on 02/27/2010

You are so right. South Carolina is an Islamic State. Warn HLS to pass out the purity tests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Carolina_flag