From Twitter to X: Elon Musk Begins Erasing an Iconic Internet Brand
For more than 10 years, Twitter has been recognizable for its blue and white bird logo, which became a symbol of the social network’s unique culture and lexicon. To “tweet” became a verb. A “tweet” referred to a post. “Tweeps” became the moniker for Twitter employees.
Late on Sunday, Elon Musk began getting rid of it all.
The tech billionaire, who bought Twitter last year, renamed the social platform X.com on its website and started replacing the bird logo with a stylized version of the 24th letter of the Latin alphabet.
Inside Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, X logos were projected in the cafeteria, while conference rooms were renamed to words with X in them, including “eXposure,” “eXult” and “s3Xy,” according to photos seen by The New York Times. Workers also began removing bird-related paraphernalia, such as a giant blue logo in the cafeteria. Outside the building, workers took off the first six letters of Twitter’s name before the San Francisco Police Department stopped them for performing “unauthorized work,” according to an alert sent by the department.
Mr. Musk had long said he might make the name change, but he hastened the process in a tweet early Sunday when he declared that “soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.” He has said he hopes to turn Twitter into an “everything app” called X, which would encompass not only social networking but also banking and shopping.
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Musk also shared a photo of a giant X projected on Twitter’s San Francisco office building with the caption: “Our headquarters tonight.”
The moves — which are continuing — are the most visible changes that Mr. Musk has made to Twitter since he closed the deal to buy the company in October. Behind the scenes, he has taken many steps to overhaul the firm, eliminating thousands of employees and changing the platform’s features, including badges that were meant to verify users, as well as the rules governing what can and can’t be said on the service.
Yet the name and logo changes were impossible to ignore. By starting to remove the Twitter name, Mr. Musk tossed out an entrenched brand that had been around since 2006 — when the company was founded — and that had delighted and frustrated celebrities, politicians, athletes and other users in equal measure. Twitter introduced its blue bird mascot in 2010 and updated it two years later.
Many Twitter users, who have spent years tweeting and building up their presence on the site, appeared alienated by the shift. “Has everybody seen the (eXecrable) new logo?” the actor Mark Hamill tweeted on Monday, with the hashtag #ByeByeBirdie. Others saw the move as Mr. Musk’s latest blow to the site, with some stubbornly saying they will still call the site Twitter and will continue to “tweet.”
When brands become verbs, it’s the “holy grail,” said Mike Proulx, a vice president and research director at Forrester, because it means they have become part of popular culture.
“The app itself has become a cultural phenomenon in all sorts of ways,” he said. “In one fell swoop, Elon Musk has essentially wiped out 15 years of brand value from Twitter and is now essentially starting from scratch.”
Mr. Musk risked the wrath of Twitter’s users even as he can ill afford to upset them. His company faces financial difficulties and increased competition, with rival Meta releasing an app this month for real-time, public conversations called Threads. The new app quickly racked up 100 million downloads in less than a week, though use of the app is under scrutiny.
Mike Carr, a co-founder of the branding company NameStormers, said Mr. Musk’s X logo could be interpreted as having an ominous “Big Brother” tech overlord vibe. Unlike the blue bird, which he described as warm and cuddly but perhaps a bit dated and weighed down by bad press, the new logo is “very harsh,” he said.
Still, it conjured phrases like “X marks the spot” and could help Mr. Musk differentiate the platform from its Twitter baggage, Mr. Carr said.
“If they do this wrong and it was anybody other than Elon Musk, he’d be running a higher risk because people could start making fun of it,” said Mr. Carr, who has helped come up with names for thousands of clients, including CarMax, the used car company.
生词记录
lexicon 全部词汇，词典
moniker 名字；绰号
stylized 程序化的;（尤指）非写实的
project 放映；投射（影、像或光）；预计，推算
exult （尤指因别人失败而）欢欣鼓舞，兴高采烈，喜形于色
paraphernalia （某项活动所需的）全部用具，全套装备
unauthorized 未经授权的，未经许可的
hasten 促进；使加快
adieu 再见
encompass 包含，包括（尤指很多不同事物）
caption （图片或卡通的）说明文字
overhaul 彻底检修，大修；改造；改进
badge 徽章；像章；证章；纪念章
toss sth out 丢弃…，抛弃…
entrenched 牢固确立的；根深蒂固的；积重难返的
mascot 吉祥物
alienate 背离；使不友好；离间
execrable 拙劣的；糟糕的；极坏的
hashtag 在社交媒体上发文时用来描述主题的#号
the holy grail 圣杯（传说耶稣在最后的晚餐上使用过）；极难找到（或得到）之物
in one fell swoop 一举，一下子
wipe out 摧毁；使灭绝；（尤指车辆）失控，出事故
from scratch 从零开始
wrath 愤怒；愤慨
rack up 积累，大量获得（利润）；严重遭受（损失）；（体育中）多次赢得（比赛）
ominous 使人感到）不吉利的，不祥的
vibe （某地、某种局面或某支曲子的）气氛，氛围
cuddly 可爱的；令人想抱的
weigh sb down 使(某人)感到沉重；压下，压倒；使感到焦虑，使烦恼，使忧心忡忡
conjure 变戏法；用魔法变出；像变魔术般变出
