Logo history The logo of The San Francisco 49ers is considered to be one of the most recognizable among all the rugby teams in the world. Despite its simplicity, it has a strong character and a bright color palette, which makes it truly remarkable. File:San Francisco 49ers logo.svg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that.
When Anchor Brewing announced on Monday it had changed its classic logo to something much more corporate, the reviews in the Bay Area were immediate and negative. Some called it San Francisco’s New Coke moment, referring to the ill-fated 1985 Coke rebranding, arguably the greatest gaffe in modern marketing history.
This comparison is wrong.
The city’s New Coke moment has already been set in stone. It was Feb. 13, 1991; the day the San Francisco 49ers unveiled their new helmet design.
There was no Twitter or phone texting capabilities back then. The words “cancel culture” wouldn’t appear in the pages of The San Francisco Chronicle for another 26 years. But the swift tide of dissent by San Franciscans filled sports radio broadcasts, barber shops and The Chronicle’s letters page for days.
“It’s so goofy looking, like a sign advertising onions, ‘49 cents a pound’ at Safeway or something,” said Rik Gloff, an advertising executive and 49ers fan. “It doesn’t have the character or tradition of the old logo. All of my friends are horrified too.”
The logo was initially the third biggest piece of news in a press conference where Carmen Policy was named team president, and Eddie DeBartolo suggested, falsely, that 31-year-old defensive back Ronnie Lott might be getting too old. Initially the news appeared in the ninth paragraph of Ira Miller’s Chronicle column.
But when video of the helmet appeared on television, the San Francisco Bay Area spontaneously combusted.
“The phone keeps ringing,” 49ers PR assistant Al Barba said wearily, according to a Feb. 15 Chronicle article. “People are saying the old logo was classier, that it meant San Francisco. I guess they basically don’t like it.”
San Francisco 49ers Logo History
The new logo was, indeed, horrendous, like the font on a sugary breakfast cereal of the time, or a New Kids on the Block album cover. NFL officials confirmed to The Chronicle that’s pretty much exactly what the New York advertising firm in charge of the redesign was trying to accomplish.
“They wanted something contemporary, that fits the era we’re in — the ’90s,” NFL Properties creative director David Boss said.
49ers Printable Logos
Anchor Brewing, a San Francisco native company bought by Japanese beer maker Sapporo in 2017, unveiled the new logo in time for its 125th anniversary this February. The colorful old-timey logo that once bore the words “Made in San Francisco since 1896” now features the anchor stylized in blue on a yellow background. As Anchor braced for backlash Monday, some of the comments seem interchangeable with the 49ers’ response to their debacle in 1991. “Change is always hard,” Anchor executive Dane Volek told The Chronicle, “but it’s about keeping the future alive.”
Assessments on San Francisco Twitter were brutal. “This is horrible. 125 years of heritage down the drain,” posted Andrew Blumberg, a pretty typical response. “First covid now this ...” a user called @bram_parsons added.
But it was more of a standard wipeout, than a Mavericks-level disaster-for-the-ages. Think somewhere between the Warriors’ 2012 sleeved jerseys and that time Gavin Newsom went outside without hair gel. And for a beer with international ambitions, angering a city of 550,000 or so potential beer drinkers might be more than an acceptable loss.
The 49ers 1991 helmet story made the front page of The Chronicle for three days, during a busy news cycle when the Gulf War was coming to an end and the UC system was increasing student fees by 36%. A Sunday Chronicle/Examiner phone poll about the helmet received more than 8,000 votes, with 93% of fans voting to keep the old “SF” helmet.
“Forty Niners fans have spoken,” an Examiner front page story started. “They approve of the team’s new helmet logo about as much as they like the Rams.”
So the team made the only logical move. Six days later, the 49ers changed the logo back. There was no press conference and no unveiling. Just a one-page fax that arrived in The Chronicle newsroom at 5:12 p.m., reading: “This action has not been viewed with favor by the very people we were trying to please … our fans.”
The team has since moved the squad to a city two counties away, debuted a black uniform with red numbers and changed starting quarterbacks at least 21 times. Levi’s Stadium has a stand that sells vegan hot dogs.
But in 30 years, the helmet hasn’t changed.
San Francisco 49 Logo
Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub
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