With the war in Ukraine, the letter Z became a symbol of open support for the Russian invasion. First it appeared on Russian tanks as a reference to “Za pobedu, “for victory, then in recent weeks it had ended up on stickers to be put on car windshields, on social networks, on Tshirts printed and projected onto advertising screens. The result was that companies that had the letter Z in their logos were forced to change their image to avoid being associated with Vladimir Putin’s regime and were accused of supporting the invasion.
One of the most discussed cases was that of the Swiss insurance company Zurich Insurance, whose logo is a large white Z on a blue background: at the end of March, after ceasing some of its business activities in Russia, the company decided to remove its own logo from social networks and replace it with the full name “Zürich”. The company had announced its intention to distance itself from the Russian invasion of Ukraine and did not rule out more drastic measures if it deemed it necessary.
A Zurich Insurance building in Zurich (EPA / ENNIO LEANZA via ANSA)
A few days earlier, the British company Ocado had decided to change the logo of the fast online shopping service Zoom, which had only been presented the previous week, for the same reason. The logo consisted of a white Z on a fuchsia background: it had drawn a few criticisms on top of those already leveled at Ocado for its partnership with British supermarket Marks & Spencer, whose 48 Russian stores also subsequently opened and are in The decision to suspend refueling remained operational.
Like Zurich, Ocabo changed the logo to the spelled out name “Zoom” and claimed it did not want to be associated with the Russian government’s actions. The company then announced a £150,000 donation to a UK charity raising aid for Ukraine.
Ocado redesigns Zoom logo after drawing “Zwastika” comparisons https://t.co/pF1PMyAPqR
The Guardian (@Guardian) March 24, 2022
The decision to change the logo was also made by companies operating in the cultural sphere. For example, Activision Blizzard, one of the largest and most successful video game companies in the world, changed the costume of one of the characters in the video game Overwatch. In the updated version, unveiled a few days ago, the letter Z has been removed from the bodice of Zarya’s winter costume, short for Aleksandra Zaryanova, the powerful heroine of Russian descent who is placed in the video game in a future dominated by robotics and artificial intelligence play an absolutely positive role in defending humanity and fighting for peace.
Activision Blizzard has not explained or published the change, according to the specialist website Polygon, because it wanted to distance itself from Russia. According to Polygon, the decision would also align with other past decisions about how Overwatch’s characters were portrayed, which are guided by respect for human and civil rights.
Another case is that of Zetland, a Copenhagenbased Danish media company founded in 2012, which is in effect an information site that publishes indepth articles and podcasts accessible to subscribers (about 28,000 today). Also in this case, the company’s logo was a large white letter Z, the initial of its name, on a colored background: with a small modification, the company significantly interrupted the diagonal arm of the Z, making it less noticeable.
The new Zetland logo (Credits: Zetland)
Mikkel Bøgild Jacobsen, who is in charge of the company’s graphics, said the logo change was decided and implemented within 10 days after it became clear that the letter Z had become a symbol for those who condemned the Russian aggression supported Ukraine.
The occasion was the grand ceremony celebrating the annexation of Crimea last March 18, which took place at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow and at which Putin himself said: “We knew about the existence of the symbols used by the Russian armed forces in Ukraine became. but at first no one really knew what they meant, nor did they seem to have any official value. Then, on March 18, at the celebrations of the eighth anniversary of the annexation of Crimea, a whole stadium was filled with banners, flags and pins with the letter Z: We seriously discussed what position we want to take, said Jakobsen .
Among other things, the company had already planned an overhaul of its logo: “We had to decide whether to continue with the logo we had already designed or create a new one, and two days after this ceremony we decided on a new one”. Jacobsen says the company decided to change the logo rather than rely on external complaints after realizing the Z was no longer a neutral symbol.
Also read: The “Z” became the symbol of the Russian invasion
To pressure companies that include Z in their logos to change them, a Ukrainian creative agency (Nebo) has also launched a campaign called Stop Z: it features a poster depicting the letter Z using Russian military force in of Ukraine and the lies being spread by the government, as well as some specific proposals to change the name of wellknown companies that have a Z in their logos and names. The list includes companies such as Amazon, Zara, as well as the Russian newspaper Meduza and the fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar.
The campaign proposes replacing the “Z” with a yellow number 3 on a blue background, i.e. in the colors of the Ukrainian flag (no explanations are given on the choice of the number 3, which is identical to the Z in Cyrillic), and also includes a link to a Google Drive folder to download the logo in various formats. So far, none of these companies appear to have accepted the proposal.
Also read: In Germany, debunking the “Z” in support of Russia is considered an excuse for a crime