Maple leaves on corporate logos

[Transportfan]

Does anyone think seeing maple leaves on retail logos, etc. is silly? They're supposed to identify a chain as Canadian, but you see them on American chains here as well as genuine Canadian ones, so they don't actually identify them as Canadian at all.

Even dumber is why contracting companies, big or small, also often use ML's as well. Why does something as obviously Canadian as a small-town contractor need a maple leave on their logo?

I can see it for actual Canadian major retail chains or some other corporate entities, but for anything else, what's the point? To me, it seems like an ode to national insecurity, as if Canadians are using ML's to make Canada seem more important, while it actually does the opposite and reinforces the "little-country" image.

 

[Johnny Au]

The Golden Arches defaced with a red maple leaf; interestingly enough, only McDonald's Canada has the Golden Arches defaced with a national symbol

Wendy's Canada has its apostrophe replaced with a maple leaf.

 

[junctionist]

It wasn't defaced. The Maple Leaf makes it better, and McDonalds chose to do that to their property. People who are proud to associate with Canada express that pride with the maple leaf. There's nothing inherently negative about that. Symbols are at the heart of nationalism.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Except that there is nothing particularly Canadian about McDonalds Inc. I think slapping a Maple Leaf onto corporate logo is like the new fig leaf.

AoD

 

[AndreaPalladio]

McDonalds has always had a maple leaf on its logo, although it hasn't always defaced the arches.

 

[Transportfan]

Except that there is nothing particularly Canadian about McDonalds Inc. I think slapping a Maple Leaf onto corporate logo is like the new fig leaf.

AoD

Somebody gets it!

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Somebody gets it!

I have a different take about it though - I see it more as an attempt by transnationals with a consumer focus to "humanize" and "localize" themselves. Interestingly, you also see the opposite trend for transnats with a clearly identifable locale of origin delocating themselves (think Toronto-Dominion became TD; Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank became HSBC, etc).

AoD

 

[junctionist]

Except that there is nothing particularly Canadian about McDonalds Inc. I think slapping a Maple Leaf onto corporate logo is like the new fig leaf.

AoD

So what? If that global powerhouse wants to associate with Canada, that's good. In fact, they should move their headquarters here and use that logo worldwide.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

So what? If that global powerhouse wants to associate with Canada, that's good. In fact, they should move their headquarters here and use that logo worldwide.

The point is - are they?

AoD

 

[Admiral Beez]

In my travels globally for work we always had a maple leaf on our logo and everyone knew it was for Canada.

 

[Transportfan]

^ Makes sense then, but on the side of "Joe's Contracting" pickup in Tottenham it's rather pointless.

 

[nfitz]

Except that there is nothing particularly Canadian about McDonalds Inc. I think slapping a Maple Leaf onto corporate logo is like the new fig leaf.

New? I seem to recall them using the Maple Leaf in their logo in the 1970s.

 

[adma]

Let's remember, too, that George Cohon gave McDonalds' Canadian operations a very strong and personalized "stamp"--in a way, the maple leaf in the logo's a part of that...

 

[Johnny Au]

I used the term "defaced" in a heraldic way. It simply means "superimposed on", not "vandalized". Yes, I meant to say that McDonald's Canada, unlike other McDonald's in other countries (including the United States), is the only operation to have a national symbol inserted on the corporate logo.

 

[Filip]

I used the term "defaced" in a heraldic way. It simply means "superimposed on", not "vandalized". Yes, I meant to say that McDonald's Canada, unlike other McDonald's in other countries (including the United States), is the only operation to have a national symbol inserted on the corporate logo.

When the first McDonald's opened in the then USSR - there was a hammer and sickle where the Maple Leaf is in Canada.