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Rabat – Moroccans have taken to social media to ridicule Casablanca’s new MAD 3 million logo under the hashtag #WeCasablanca.
“I don’t get the working of the #WeCasablanca city branding campaign. We what Casablanca? We are? We love? WE WHAT?!,”Associated Press journalist Samia Errazzouki tweeted.
Other mocked the fact that the “blanca” portion of the city’s name – which literally means white – appears in black on the logo’s official rendering.
Mohamed Jouhari, the CEO of Casa Events and Animation, played a key role in the development and selection of the new logo. He sat down with Medias24 this week to defend the new symbol:
“Customers had fun taking the name of the city and playing with it, but the project extends beyond Casablanca’s name,” he said. “It is more about branding…This is important for brand ambition and promise, illustrated by the “we” [in the logo.]”
The French agency MMAP oversaw the selection of the new logo for Morocco’s largest city by population, prompting Moroccans to question why a domestic marketing firm had not been chosen for the rebranding.
“This choice was made after a public tender devoid of bias, which was won not only by MMAP, which has proven experience in territorial marketing, but by a consortium to which it belongs with Ernst and Young Casablanca and Paris,” Jouhari said.
He added that the logo had been designed by Moroccan Redouane Chetouan, who has won an award from the National Institute of Fine Arts.
To the online mockery the rebranding has faced, Jouhari said he was “frustrated” that people were focusing so closely on the logo, instead of also recognizing the market research that MAPP has completed.
