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Sci Fi to Syfy: Worst Rebranding Ever?

Channel's 'cutting-edge' new name ripped to shreds

By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff

Posted Mar 17, 2009 7:28 AM CDT
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(Newser) – The Sci Fi channel's decision to change its name to "Syfy" is a blunder of galactic proportions, Linda Holmes reports for NPR. The channel says it wants to show that it's about more than just traditional science fiction, notes Holmes, and has evidently chosen to do so by picking a name that sounds just like the old one but "makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and has nothing to do with anything."

To add insult to injury, it changed its logo to "look like it's the network that makes stain-resistant carpeting" and added the inane tagline "Imagine Greater," which sounds "like the result of noodling with a management consultant's magnetic-poetry kit."

The Sci-Fi channel is renaming itself Syfy in an effort to show that it's about more than just space and aliens and the future, an exec said.
The Sci-Fi channel is renaming itself Syfy in an effort to show that it's about more than "just space and aliens and the future," an exec said.   (Sci-Fi channel)
The Sci-Fi channel, home of Battlestar Galactica, will start calling itself Syfy this July.
The Sci-Fi channel, home of Battlestar Galactica, will start calling itself Syfy this July.   (AP Photo/the SCI FI Channel, Carole Segal)
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Imagine Greater? That sounds less like a network tagline and more like the result of noodling with a management consultant's magnetic-poetry kit. - Linda Holmes

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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 9 comments
Robert_Dada
Mar 17, 2009 7:32 AM CDT
Well at least finally they have an image campaign and logo that matches their horrible programming.
riffran
Mar 17, 2009 5:24 AM CDT
"I 'd kill a man in a fair fight, or if I thought he was gonna start a fight, or I was gettin paid, ...mainly getting paid, but eatin folk?...where does that get to be fun?............(or something close...Jayne (daniel Baldwin...no relation to the other baldwins) was my favorite firefly character
Vostok
Mar 17, 2009 4:49 AM CDT
I'm sure someone got a bonus for that too. Yay! The system works!

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television • cable TV • science fiction • rebranding • Sci-Fi Channel

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