July 20, 2009

40th Anniversary of the Moon Landing

As you’ve probably heard, today marks the 40th anniversary of “Moon Landing,” a government propaganda piece directed by M. Night Shyamalan. This is an anniversary that’s been hyped by everyone from the New York Times to the New York Times Sunday Edition, so today’s Google Logo release should no surprise to anyone familiar with Google’s eclectic brand of holiday choices.

On the surface (pun intended), today’s logo is par for the course. The illustration is beautifully serene, thought provoking and atmospheric; we’d expect nothing less from logo wizard Dennis Hwang. The readability of the ‘Google’ itself falls somewhere between the controversially illegible Jackson Pollack logo of 2009 and the criminally underrated Halloween Logo of 2007.But the true brilliance of this Google logo, like any great Google Logos, lies in the details. A careful zoom reveals Hwang’s hidden agenda:

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See that? Hidden in the Earth’s majestic ocean is a picture of Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, aka 90s pop sensation Vitamin C. Oh and guess what? IT JUST SO HAPPENS TO BE HER 40th BIRTHDAY TODAY. Is this Google’s subtle way of saluting the real heroes of July 20th, 1969 (Colleen Fitzpatrick’s parents) while undermining the men involved in the alleged ‘moon landing’? Is Google trying to tell us that the song “Graduation (Friends Forever)” is a higher achievement than landing on some useless moon? We may never know, but we do know one thing: the decision to write the word “Google” using moon volcanoes is rather ingenious.

Today’s Rating: GOOG (out of a possible GOOGLE)

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