Corporate Logos, Branding and Occult Sigils

Corporations are strange entities, there is no human being behind a corporate that can be held fully responsible for the corporations actions. CEO’s often absorb the public outrage when something goes wrong and they could potentially loose their jobs, with a large severance package of course, but the corporation still exists. It is incredibly difficult to attack or destroy a corporation. The only way a corporation dies is if it goes bankrupt and even then there is now the possibility of a bailout to bring it back from the grave or another larger corporation can buy its assets.

The easiest way to attack a corporation is to attack its Sigil, more commonly known as its Logo. Corporations consciously use these magical symbols to embody something they want to convey to the public. We see these corporate logos everywhere and they are meant to invoke a specific emotional and mental reaction that is directly linked to the corporation itself. A good example is BP’s re-branding, moving from the BP shield design to the Helios Logo. They went from being British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum, in an effort to appear more “green” than they actually are.

BP's Old Sheild Logo

BP's New Helios Logo

The Helios logo is said to represent energy in its many forms and is named after the Greek Sun God. In the aftermath of the Gulf Spill, logomyway.com has started a contest to redesign BP’s corporate logo. These redesigned logos are a direct attack on BP’s image and branding. They have managed to make their way into the mainstream media. Unfortunately, it takes more than a simple attack on a corporations image to make real change, even though it does make a difference.

Corporations are profit driven and survive by selling their product (and their image) to the people. Because the oil market is not a free market, being artificially manipulated by oil speculation, it is not enough to effect a corporation through supply and demand. That is why the BP boycott that seems to be gaining momentum will not drastically impact the company. These corporations have implemented safeguards through market manipulation and government deregulation. Knowledge of these two aspects need to be pushed into the mainstream, with greater transparency, so that people can understand what is really going on. Without information there can not be change. The government has their hands inside the pockets of big oil and don’t want to give up the mass amount of campaign contributions they receive every year. BP even has some control over the courts, though Half of the active federal judges in New Orleans have recused themselves from BP oil spill lawsuits, due to a conflict of interest. Its true, a corporation can buy protection from the very people who are supposed to be working in our best interests.

BP’s image will surely be damaged but if we intend on re-branding them as a dangerous and careless environmental liability, we need to make sure it sticks. When they try to resurrect themselves from the ashes of this disaster, we need to make sure not to forget that their face may change, but underneath it all they will still be the same demon hiding behind a new mask.