Brands
The Nigerian agencies- Chain Reactions Nigeria, TBWA
Africa and The Temple Management Company that jointly created the Nigeria @ 60
logo has refuted rumors making the rounds that the logo, which has been
appreciated and loved by both highly placed government officials and industry
practitioners was never plagiarised.
The rebuttal
came on the back of the rife rumors ring through the social media that the logo
was lifted from a Russian Diamond company.
According to a joint statement released to our reporter,
the co-creators said, “The attention of Chain Reactions Nigeria, The Temple
Management and TBWA Africa has been drawn to an unfortunate conversation in
some sections of the online media regarding the recently unveiled logo for the
Nigerian Diamond Jubilee Celebration (Nigeria at 60) by President Muhammadu
Buhari (GCFR).
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| Old Nigeria @60 Logo |
Few hours after the unveiling of the Nigeria at 6th
anniversary logo, myriads of reviews poured in from different stakeholders
across the country as expected. As envisaged, the views expressed are symbolic
of our diversity as a nation. In fact, it captures what we are celebrating. The
theme of the Diamond Jubilee Anniversary, TOGETHER, is all about how we have
stayed together as a people despite our diversity.
The statement further said, “This isn’t surprising as
major brands and government initiatives have undergone barrage of condemnations
and commendations in times past. Are we surprised? No,” Mr. Israel Opayemi,
chief executive officer of Chain Reactions Nigeria stated
Opayemi reiterated that it is commendable that the
Nigerian government has done the right thing by engaging the services of
Nigerian professionals to develop the thematic direction, campaign strategy and
the logo for the Diamond Jubilee celebration pro bono.
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| Nigeria @60 Logo Revised Diamond |
“In the past, you would have heard that the Nigerian
government engaged the services of some foreign agencies for some
nerve-cracking and ridiculous sum of money.” Opayemi emphasised.
On the plagiarism, the statement read, “The primary
allegation of plagiarism on the unveiled logo deserves a quick dissection. To
Plagiarise, according to Oxford Language Dictionary, is to take someone else's
work or ideas and pass them off as one's own.”
Interestingly, the emptiness of this narrative lies in
the fact that peddlers perhaps do not understand the meaning or they feigned
ignorance so as to drive their usual hatred for the Nigerian government.
“To meet the qualified meaning of this definition, it
means the Nigerian professionals who designed the campaign picked another logo
that is exactly like this or similar to this and delivered it to the Federal
government. Have they shown Nigerians the logo that looks exactly like the
Nigeria @ 60 logo from another jurisdiction,” Opayemi asked rhetorically.
He said, Instead of saying that the diamond looks
similar to the one they have found on the internet, they have disingenuously
alleged that Nigeria plagiarised her 60th Anniversary logo. What a convenient
narrative but a disservice to our fatherland.
A quick check on the internet shows that there are
thousands of diamonds with crystals that look alike. The images on the Internet
are there in any way for creative usage and purposes. Some are backed by rights
and paid for while others are free.
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| Nigeria @60 Logo Old Diamond |
Reacting to the outrageous costing narrative being
peddled about, the chief executive officer of Chain Reactions Nigeria stated
that “Without an announced budget or costing being declared from the
Presidency, some social media commentators have hastily concluded that the logo
was designed with an outrageous amount.
According to him, “Should we put the perpetrators on a
national media to justify this claim with verifiable evidence, we will be
offered with silence and mischief. The Nigeria at 60 logo was designed pro-bono
out of sheer zeal and patriotism for Nigeria by a consortium of Nigerian
marketing communications and talent management companies.”
“This controversy is a great disservice to these
Nigerian professionals who have invested their time into giving Nigeria a
beautiful identity in commemoration of her 60th anniversary,” the statement
concluded.
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