Nellie Andreeva

UPDATED: Comedy Central today unveiled its first major makeover in a decade. Matt Mitovich, Editor-At-Large for MMC’s upcoming TV-centric Web site, was at the event in New York and filed this report:

Comedy Central on Thursday shared with the press a new logo – or “mark” – that will launch on-air in January. Gone is the urban art-flavored skyline, and in is a pair of nested letter Cs accompanied by the name Comedy Central, with “Central” ostensibly spelled upside-down. (The network assured the press, though, that it needn’t be typed that way. Even if it could be.) But more to the point, it raises the question: Is the copyright logo copyrighted?

Bob Salazar, the cabler’s SVP of brand creative, explained that since the Comedy Central brand “has never been so robust and so relevant in the comedy zeitgeist” – thanks in large part to the fall follies of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – “it was the perfect time” to “refresh” the network’s logo for the first time in a decade. Considering the multiple ways people now consume content, including online and via devices such as the iPad, Comedy Central wanted “an image that is in tune with that.” In a digital landscape populated by Facebook’s blue F and Twitter’s T, “It’s a mark that stands out in that environment,” says Salazar.

The new logo launches a big year for the network, one that will feature a months-long celebration of South Park‘s 15th anniversary, a celebrity roast that a network rep teases will be as good as (if not more outrageous than) David Hasselhoff’s, the Jan. 11 premiere of Onion SportsDome, and the April premiere of The Comedy Awards (fka The American Comedy Awards)

Here is Comedy Central’s video promoting the new look.

Comedy Central Press
Comedy Central: Refreshed and Rededicated
www.comedycentral.com

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