ABC1 rebrands aiming to change way we think
This week, ABC1 launches a bold new on-air look that positions the flagship channel as the home of intelligent entertainment.
ABC1 Channel Controller Brendan Dahill says the THINK rebrand aims to broaden the perception of what the channel is: “Everyone knows ABC1 offers quality television and the most respected news and current affairs coverage, and our audiences trust us to deliver this; but we’re also a destination for fantastic entertainment – landmark dramas, ground-breaking comedies, compelling documentaries and factual series and much-loved panel shows – all of which have been entertaining audiences for many years. At its heart, television is about entertainment; what ABC1 offers is quality, programs created to engage audiences of all ages and our new tagline, THINK ENTERTAINMENT sums this up perfectly.”
ABC TV Marketing, in collaboration with The Lab, have created thedynamic new on-air look which is built around the visual metaphor ofthe thought bubble. This idea reinforces the new tagline and alsogives the channel a fun concept which comes to life.
In the firstseries of idents, key ABC1 talent including Adam, Myf and Alan fromSpicks and Specks, Wil, Russel and Todd from The Gruen Transfer andMargaret and David from At the Movies interact with their own thoughtbubbles.
The THINK concept also plays out graphically withgenre-specific idents and further extensions of the campaign willscreen later in the year. The ABC1 logo has been updated and a newcolour palette of blue and burnt orange utilised.
The rebrand comes as ABC1 launches two of its major new series for 2011this week – talk show Adam Hills in Gordon St Tonight and MariekeHardy’s comic drama Laid – both premiering on Wednesday 9 February from8.30pm. The week also sees the return of regular series includingAustralian Story, Four Corners, Q&A, Foreign Correspondent, MediaWatch, New Inventors and Gardening Australia.
The new look for ABC1 marks the first stage of ABC TV’s rebrandingprocess. ABC2 will unveil its new look in April, with ABC for Kids tofollow later in the year.
18 Comments
Wow. That’s terrible. Who made this? SBS do this sort of thing much better.
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!
What happened to a history of thought provoking ABC idents?
What happened to ‘It’s my ABC?’
What happened to the amazing Aussies hand painting their own interpretation of the ABC logo? (Steve Rogers shot the early ones..)
They’ve done nothing less than a cheap-arse version of the Americanised shit that nine, seven and ten shit out when they have some new yank shows to shill.
Awful.
Fucking awful.
Well, it does change the way you think. It makes you think that the ABC is stuck in the 90s. This is so ordinary.
Thoughtless.
Sad to say but it looks like Channel 10 and 9 had a bastard child.
I wonder if it was lost on Todd Sampson and Russel Howcroft that they are now in the very same horrible ads that they’ve been bagging on Gruen Transfer and criticising in their day jobs for years.
“ABC TV Marketing, in collaboration with The Lab, have created the dynamic new on-air look which is built around the visual metaphor of the thought bubble. This idea reinforces the new tagline and also gives the channel a fun concept which comes to life.”
Yes that’s right, it does all those things, now give me the scissors, there you go, and lets take your medicine, and lie down. Very good. Sleepy time.
Lock the door and run.
I love it.
A visual metaphor based around thought bubbles? That’s just about the first thought someone would scribble on their notepad when they’re starting out the process of developing an idea.
This is certainly not ‘bold’ or ‘intelligent’. It looks like the efforts of some obscure fledgling pay TV channel that hardly anyone watches…not a national broadcaster.
Embarrassing for all concerned.
Oh Lord. There’s lack of pride and there’s this.
They look like farts.
The Lab’s heyday was in the 90s, when it was Videolab, so it looks like they have gone back there for inspiration. On the bubbles theme… was that inspired by a designer when he farted in the bath?
The ABC idents have always been something to aspire to in terms of simplistic yet effective design. It reflected the indie/artistic nature of the content. This however makes the ABC look like it is trying hard to be 7, 9 or 10.
I now remember why I no longer take my jobs to any facility north of the bridge. By the way, the fact that my captcha line says rectle is strangely poetic.
The job was awarded after a competitive pitching process. It wasn’t just “taken to a facility north of the bridge.”
It doesn’t really matter whether it was awarded after a competitive pitching process, or not. The end result is something that has a definite ‘taken to a facility’ look and feel about it.
Are ABC viewers really going to have to put up with this mind-numbing drivel for all of 2011?
It makes the presumably now superseded (and oh-so-politically-correct) campaign with the ‘gloomy firefighter’, ‘preachy farmer’, etc look quite good by comparison.
oh dear. awful.
So which one is the real facility then?
The one north of the bridge who executed the job or the one south of the bridge who chose and commissioned the work?
Love the adds
Cant wait to see the magical one with the girls chasing bubbles
“Thought,” I don’t get the concept. I think Dad said back in the 70’s “thought” was something he did alot more of before there was TV. It was shoved to the rear of the mind along with imagination, inventiveness and constructiveness. There’s a another new channel around now too. The “Family” channel, you find it by turning off your TV, and looking away from your it. The other people in your house are your family in 3D and in living vibrant full colour. No commercials either.