A new logo from AirBnB has once again put controversy on the company after the logo was seen as looking like a vagina. The new logo is a circular pink shape that some believe has the appearance of being a woman's vagina and has already sparked conversations over the logo on social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.
AirBnB has been on the defensive over the logo, which they said took around a year to develop and come to a decision. Airbnb co-founder and CTO Nathan Blecharczyk, at a company sponsored dinner event in San Francisco, dismissed the criticism of the logo.
"It's just like: Go ahead, laugh all you want, guys," he said. "We wouldn't want to design a logo that caters to the lowest common denominator. This was a yearlong undertaking for dozens of people, it's something meaningful, and no one pauses to really understand that."
Bélo, as Airbnb is calling the logo, will have the AirBnB branding on it and this hopes to avoid any confusion. It was developed by British firm The Design Studio and AirBnB says that the logo is not yet finalized.
"If you looked at the Nike swoosh, you might say it's a check mark, but once you understand the context, it means something else," he said. "The symbol is not supposed to be a symbol, it's supposed to be something with meaning. The bélo is a vehicle for rich, deep, emotional, human stories."
Still, for a company facing widespread criticism over their predatory housing policies that have allowed companies to purchase entire apartment complexes, often evicting the current residents, to list the rooms on AirBnB, this is not a needed controversy at the moment for the company.
And it doesn't stop at vagina, with some media outlets arguing the new logo has the appearance of a man's genitalia as well.
"Is it balls? Is it a vagina? Is it balls in front of a vagina?" asked Gizmodo. "I challenge you to name a sexual area not evoked by the Airbnb logo," tweeted another.
Whether or not AirBnB followers will agree with the company that it is a logo that represents unity and coming together is not the question, as more and more online users have taken the logo and "dressed it up" some in order to poke fun at a company facing an onslaught of controversy over its business practices, and now its simple logo.
