For the past few years, a bunch of us designers have been referring to companies that changed their logos for a hideous abomination as companies that got “Verizoned”. Obviously, this stems back from when Bell Atlantic changed their in-utero Wachovia logo to the Star Trek abortion that it has been for a few years.

Since the inception of that term, a number of logos have been “Verizoned”, including Pepsi, Blimpie, The London 2012 Olympics, etc. But now, Verizon, themselves, have been Verizoned.

Please don’t get me wrong, normally ANYTHING other than the existing Verizon logo would be great. But they just turned it into Skype. This might have something to do with them getting sued by the State of New Jersey. I get the feeling that every 5 years, Verizon changes their logo to try to escape impending bad publicity. After all, isn’t that why they abandoned the name “Bell Atlantic” in the first place? And, if so, why not just go back to it? Of all three logos, Bell Atlantic had the nicest/most original. And now, with Wachovia (the bank, not the Securities/Investment company) going bust, there’s much less competition for the identity. Actually, why not just take the Wachovia name/logo? Since they’re in the business of stealing existing brands (Skype), revert to the original logical progression from Bell Atlantic and just update the mark to feel more current (read: Wachovia) and put this whole ugly Verizon business behind you.