AOL is blasting into the 21st Century, guns blazing, with a brand new logo! The yellow “running man” is turning 13 this year—about 60 years younger than the average AOL enthusiast. While they’re not completely retiring the old image, the company is making him take a back seat because users associate him with other out-dated Internet relics like dial-up connections and that horrid dial tone. Not known is if TMZ, another AOL creation, will hold back on publishing the photos of the running man’s drunken bender through downtown Los Angeles after finding out his job has been downsized.
AOL has opted to go with an array of newer and hipper images, such as a goldfish, or a hand flipping the “heavy metal” fingers. Having not been in middle school for awhile now, I can no longer tell if AIM remains the most popular way for tweens to communicate. I can only assume Facebook chat has trickled down to even those whose conversations revolve around which symbol for abstinence is hotter: a werewolf or vampire. A picture of purple smoke with the letters Aol (that’s not a typo you’re looking at, they are whipping out the big guns—lowercase!) is sure to get users back, no matter how shady their reputation might be.
