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Russia’s Rebranded McDonald’s Restaurants (Vkusno i tochka) Scribble Out Golden Arches On Sauce Packets
Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants reopened Sunday with a new name, logo, and menu, but the same sauce packets.
Staff at the rebranded fast-food chain scribbled out the McDonald’s logo on sauce packets with black pen, Reuters reported, with an image from the Agence France-Presse seemingly confirming this.
Vkusno & tochka, which Reuters translated as “tasty and that’s it,” opened 15 stores in and around Moscow on Sunday, including what was formerly McDonald’s flagship Russian restaurant in the city’s Pushkin Square.
Alexander Govor, a Russian businessperson, bought Russia’s McDonald’s restaurants after the burger giant said that continued ownership was “no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values” following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The hurried rebranding shows how Govor has tried to strike a balance between operating restaurants that will satisfy customers as a substitute for McDonald’s and not violating the company’s trademarks.
“We don’t have the right to use some colors, we don’t have the right to use the golden arches, we don’t have the right to use any mention of McDonald’s,” Govor told Reuters.
The huge lines of people waiting to get burgers in the days before Russian McDonald’s restaurants closed and the hefty price tags for its products on classified-ads sites showed the scale of its bulging Russian market. By clinging on to aspects of McDonald’s menu, branding, and store design, whenever possible, Vkusno & tochka can try win over loyal customers.
The famous golden arches have been scrapped, and Vkusno & tochka has a new logo made up of just one dot and two lines — or a burger and two fries — which appear in the shape of a large “M.”
Oleg Paroev, who was named as the CEO of McDonald’s Russia in February, and who has continued his role as CEO of Vkusno & tochka, said the restaurant interiors would remain the same but all traces of the McDonald’s name would be removed, Reuters reported.
Reuters reported that the chain largely used plain white packaging for fries and burgers, plain white drink cups, and plain brown paper takeaway bags. This is also evident in some of the photos of products on Vkusno & tochka’s website.
Though some dishes look familiar, Vkusno & tochka has no plans to sell Big Macs and McFlurrys.
“These names, these brands, their appearance and production technology” are too directly related to McDonald’s, Paroev said, according to The Journal.
Source: Business Insider
After Pullout Over Ukraine War, Russia’s McDonald’s Replacement Reveals Logo Resembling Burger And Fries
The new fast-food chain that will take over the 850 McDonald’s locations in Russia has debuted its new logo: two orange-yellow sticks representing french fries and an orange circle representing a hamburger against a green background.
On Thursday, the Sistema PBO company, which has managed the McDonald’s restaurant chain in Russia after the corporation left the country, confirmed to Russian state media agency TASS that it had selected a new logo.
McDonald’s, like nearly 1,000 other international companies, pulled out of Russia back in March during the first few weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. After more than three decades of operation in the country, the fast-food chain initially suspended the operation of all of its Russian locations on March 14, before announcing a full withdrawal just two days later.
“The green background of the logo symbolizes the quality of products and service that our guests are accustomed to. The logo will be used in the advertising campaign that we are launching today,” a Sistema PBO spokesperson said, adding that a new name for the replacement chain has not been finalized yet.
McDonald’s said in a statement on March 16: “The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values.”
The multinational corporation went on to sell its business to Russian businessman Alexander Govor for an undisclosed sum, although McDonald’s announced it would write off its net investment in the market by up to $1.4 billion.
As part of the deal, Govor agreed to keep on all employees “under equivalent terms” for at least two years and “de-Arch” the chain’s Russian locations. Because McDonald’s continues to retain its trademark in Russia, the new chain is forbidden from using “the McDonald’s name, logo, branding, and menu.”
Source: Newsweek
As Brands Break Up With Russia, Here Are Some Logos They Could Redesign With
Global companies are making their departure from Russia in response to its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
For now, most of these exits seem to be temporary, but just in case brands like McDonald’s, Adidas, and Netflix are looking to cut off ties for good, Czech art director Václav Kudelka has designed some potential logos to make things more… official-looking.
The amusing, pun-filled project imagines household names saying dasvidaniya (that’s bye) to the nation via their logos as pressures intensify and supply chain issues arise.
Cheeky visual references of escape lighten up the mood, from a bird flying out of the “Unileaver” symbol, to the “Adios” logo reflecting a downward trend and a figure locating the exit sign in “FedExit.”
With all the heavy news out there, you deserve a giggle. Head below for some humorous branding wordplays that are pootin’ all those bad vibes, and be sure to pop over to Kudelka’s portfolio to check out more of his projects.
Source: DesignTAXI
Russian Painting Worth €1 Million Ruined After Bored Security Guard Draws Eyes On Faceless Figures
A painting insured for €1 million has been vandalised by a “bored” security guard who drew eyes on the canvas on his first day of work.
Employees at Russia’s Yeltsin Center have sent Anna Leporskaya’s ‘Three Figures’, painted between 1932-1934, off for restoration after the art was vandalised with a museum-branded ballpoint pen.
Authorities confirmed on 8 February that the work had been defaced by a new security employee aged 60.
The unnamed employee since been dismissed from his position, reports The Art Newspaper Russia, who broke the story.
“His motives are still unknown but the administration believes it was some kind of a lapse in sanity,” the exhibition’s curator Anna Reshetkina said.
Leporskaya’s artwork depicting three faceless figures was on loan from the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow so it could feature at the Yeltsin Center’s abstract exhibition, titled ‘The World as Non-Objectivity. The Birth of a New Art’.
Two visitors spotted the addition of eyes on two of the figures during a visit on 7 December 2021.
Criminal proceedings against the employee were initially dismissed due to the assessment that the painting could be saved.
Mounting public pressure has lead to this being reconsidered under the charge of vandalism, which carries a sentence of a €468 fine and a one-year correctional labour in Russia.
The piece was sent to a restoration team at the State Tretyakov the day after the incident and is now being treated.
Restoration is expected to cost around €3,000 but experts are confident the painting can be saved without any serious damage to the original brush strokes.
Ink from the ballpoint pen is said to have only slightly penetrated the paint layer.
The Yeltsin Center confirmed they have installed protective screens over the rest of the exhibition to prevent copycats.
Source: Euronews Culture
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