Tesco's new advertising campaign celebrates the brand value in the iconic blue dashes

Tesco's new advertising campaign ("Icons") has launched this week, replacing the letters in the logo with images of foods starting with the letters T, E, S, C and O. Only the five blue dashes and the “Every Little Helps” strapline remain to identify the brand behind the billboards. 

The ad is designed to showcase the quality of Tesco's food products but it also demonstrates the significant reputation and goodwill in the non-verbal elements of the business' logo (the immediately recognisable blue dashes) as well as the strapline, which is much less visually apparent in the overall design leaving the dashes to take centre stage. 

Tesco clearly feel that the reputation in the dashes is sufficient for them to largely stand alone in advertising and to identify Tesco as a source of origin in their own right. They previously tried to register the blue dashes as a trade mark in the UK (without the word TESCO) but this was unsuccessful. The UKIPO considered that the recognisability of the dashes relied upon the word TESCO being shown alongside them, despite Tesco's survey evidence to the contrary.

Image credit: The Drum