AT&T, or actually at&t, is Back!

Joseph Laszlo | November 21, 2005, 02:07 PM

It became official a couple of weeks ago, but even officialer now, with the announcement that not only is SBC taking on the AT&T name [my blog], but so is Cingular. [USA Today]

This is very ironic to me, as it probably is to anyone who remembers the huge marketing push to convert AT&T Wireless subscribers over to Cingular, and to rebrand all the retail stores, etc., in the wake of Cingular's purchase just a single, short year ago. Let's hope some of those stores saved some of their old signage.

Although actually with the new logo, the signage is pretty obsolete, too.

AT&T is now at&t? Hmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about that. At least they kept a version of the Death Star logo. Here's what Ed Whitacre had to say:

"The overhaul is aimed at freshening up the brand, Whitacre says. He says the pint-sized letters, reminiscent of alphabet soup, were a tough sell internally.

"We agonized over the letters," says Whitacre, who made the final call on the name and the logo.

He says marketing people finally convinced him that the new look was more evocative of the Internet generation: "They tell me it's more trendy and modern."

Trendy and modern. Perhaps. But for a company that's trying to be about the future of broadband and TV, AT&T is not the name I'd think of first. Though of course, nor is SBC. Maybe AT&T should launch a branding campaign around "the second 'T' is for 'TV.'"