Landor Distances Itself From SyFy Name

As you may have noticed, we’ve been having loads of fun here at BNET Media regarding Sci-Fi Channel’s, um, interesting decision to rename itself SyFy. The new name — which some have compared to a certain sexually-transmitted disease  — has met with puzzlement, to say the least. As this post at News.com described it: “There has been something of an outpouring of bile directed at NBC for its decision to change the name of the Sci-Fi channel to Syfy.”

In that context, how else to interpret a blog post about the SyFy name by the Sci-Fi Channel’s corporate identity firm, Landor Associates, as anything but an attempt to distance itself from it — all the while pretending the name change was a great idea it wishes it could call its own? Gushes Ken Runkel, the Landor executive director who wrote the post:

“While we’d love to take credit for all the branding initiatives our clients take on, sometimes we just can’t. This is the case with the recent launch of Syfy, the new name for our client, the SCI FI Channel…

“Yes, we worked with the SCI FI Channel, and it hired us to consult on the project. However, Syfy was a name generated internally and pre-tested at the channel before our involvement. Once Landor was involved, we explored new names as part of the process, but it was the Channel’s call to go with Syfy.”

I could editorialize about the disingenuousness of this post , but I’ll leave that to the post’s sole commenter, branding consultant Rob Frankel:

“Oh please. This is the worst head-in-the-sand post I’ve seen since Peter Arnell’s weak defense of his companies Tropicana design.”

Thanks to The New York Post for unearthing the blog post over the weekend.