Amazon changes Hitler-resembling app logo

Amazon customers noticed the blue tape resembled Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's moustache.
Amazon customers noticed the blue tape resembled Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler's moustache. Photo credit: File / Twitter @verge

Amazon has promptly changed its shopping-app logo after customers began to notice it resembled Adolf Hitler.

According to BBC, the design, launched in January to replace their previous shopping trolley logo, was supposed to look like an Amazon package with blue tape and the company's signature smile logo.

Amazon said the parcel logo was chosen to "spark the anticipation, excitement, and joy" customers feel when they see a delivery on their doorstep. 

Unfortunately, it provoked quite the opposite as customers began to complain the blue tape looked like the Nazi dictators moustache sitting on top of a smiling mouth. 

One Twitter user said they would be telling their parents to look for the "cardboard Hitler" when they struggled to find the app following the design change.

While another said: "It's not just a ripped Scotch tape, it's a ripped Scotch tape that has a similar shape and is right on top of a smiling mouth - looks like a happy little cardboard Adolf to me." 

The online retailer has now altered the blue tape to make it less Hitler-like by folding it over and giving it a smooth edge over a serrated one. 

Branding agency Coley Porter Bell chief executive Vicky Bullen told BBC the association was "unfortunate" and may stick around.

"The visualization of their parcel tape on the original logo will immediately be associated as a Hitleresque moustache as that shape is forever embedded in our [subconscious] brains as such."

According to The Guardian, humans have a psychological tendency to recognise images within shapes, the term for this being apophenia. People often see Hitler in shapes, houses, and even puppies due to his distinctive and highly recognisable moustache.

It appears Amazon just can't get away from accidentally including well-known faces in their app design, with Twitter users now claiming the changed logo looks like Nickelodeon cartoon character Aang the Last Airbender.