Amazon Revamps App Icon After Design Draws Comparisons to Hitler's Mustache

People
·2 min read

Amazon

Amazon recently gave its iPhone app icon a subtle makeover after the layout of its original design drew comparisons to Adolf Hitler and his infamous mustache.

Back in January, the company debuted a new look for its iOS icon: its smiling logo sitting beneath a jagged blue piece of packing top on a cardboard box background.

Though the icon was meant to resemble an Amazon package, the placement of the tape directly above the smile made some customers think less of their deliveries, and more of the German leader of the Nazi party, who infamously wore a toothbrush mustache.

"Am I the only one who sees Hitler smiling?" one Twitter user wrote in late January.

Another, economist Corey Quinn of The Duckbill Group, responded saying that he was unable to "unsee" the Hitler face, and went on to make a series of puns about the graphic design gaffe: "I'm stunned that the Amazon.com marketing folks were alt-right with it," he joked.

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"Looks like a happy little cardboard Adolf to me," someone else added.

By Feb. 22, however, the icon had been given a makeover, and the blue tape was replaced with a smoother, two-tone piece of tape that looked as though it was being pulled.

"Amazon's new iOS app logo attempt 2: now with 15% less Hitler," Quinn wrote on Twitter.

The icon's journey gained renewed interest this week after The Guardian editor Alex Hern shared a before-and-after photo to Twitter.

"lmao I completely missed that amazon quietly tweaked its new icon to make it look… less like hitler," he wrote.

RELATED: Jeff Bezos to Step Down as CEO of Amazon, Will Take on Role of Executive Chair

The recent icon update was the first in more than five years, and was first launched in January in select European countries. By the time it debuted worldwide on Feb. 22, it had undergone changes based on customer feedback.

"Amazon is always exploring new ways to delight our customers," an Amazon spokesperson told PEOPLE in a statement. "We designed the new icon to spark anticipation, excitement, and joy when customers start their shopping journey on their phone, just as they do when they see our boxes on their doorstep."

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