Worst. Logo. EVER

I spend years working as a copywriter in advertising before becoming a stay-at-home mom. I even won a couple of (minor) awards. I worked with some amazingly talented people, including many top-notch art directors. So believe me when I tell you that this is the crappiest logo I have ever seen. It sucks. This logo leads the Suckfest Parade on It Sucks Day in Sucksville USA.

It's from this article titled, Marketing America: The ‘United States of Awesome Possibilities’. Visit for the comments which point out all the details of this logo's suck-tasticness with observations such as there is no red in this logo, only white, blue and purple (as in red states don't count) and that it looks less like "diversity" and more like the USA is falling apart. The article itself is very short as if the author was too embarrassed by his obligation to say nice things about this sucky logo so he larded this brief press-release-masquerading-as-news with extensive and offensive quotes from the geniuses behind this logo such as:

The campaign also features a website that gives foreign travellers some useful tips about American life and culture. For instance, it warns: "Health care is superior in the US but it can be very expensive because there is no universal health care." The site also cautions that "some banking networks charge fees of $1-2 per transaction," for ATM withdrawals. (In fact, some charge $3.) And: "Be aware that Americans are fanatics about showering and hygiene."

The whole ghastly idea came from

"The campaign, set to launch next year, is the brainchild of the Corporation for Travel Promotion (CTP), a private-public partnership formed to encourage tourism, with a marketing budget of $200 million. The corporation calls the push "the first-ever coordinated global marketing effort dedicated to welcoming international travelers to the United States."

I think the key phrase is "private-public partnership" which to me translates into government-run advertising pretending to be a private company sort of the same good tax dollar investment as Fannie Mae. If this suckfest of a logo is any indication of the craptacularness of the ad campaign then we will not have to worry about being overrun by smelly international tourists.