Nottingham Advertising “Pros” Drop Robin Hood from City Logo

Ask anyone anywhere on the planet about Nottingham, England, and they’ll reply “Robin Hood.” In terms of branding and name recognition, a local civic booster couldn’t do better. Nearby Derby has a variety of hat, but there isn’t quite the glamour there. Still, the folks at “Experience Nottingham” thought they could do better with a stylized upper case “N.” Even the Sheriff of Nottingham (there really is one) wants Robin Hood back on the city logo.

The Experience team’s top dog John Heeley explained, “The majority of major institutions do not want to have a legendary 13th century bowman as what is uppermost about modern Nottingham.” Taking a cue from the “NY” logo of New York City, his team of advertising wizards believed the new logo “had to be an overarching identity for the city and county. You have to reduce it to a logo which symbolizes that."

Far enough, maybe, but “N” could also mean nearby Newark (not the one in New Jersey), Nuneaton, or Northampton. Opponents of the move include Lee Radzki, landlord of the Robin Hood pub in Edwinstowe (which is just about in the middle of Sherwood Forest) who told Reuters, "The letter N could stand for a million and one things. At least the Robin Hood logo kept the heritage. We have got to keep our heritage alive. That's just another way of killing it off."

Derek Creswell, who is a city councilor in Nottingham as well as Sheriff of Nottingham (he must have a brilliant business card), said, “How can we drop Robin Hood? We have got to get him back. I am 100 percent behind Robin." The city has a Friar Tuck Inn and the street’s include Sheriff’s Way, Robin Hood Street and Maid Marian Way. Getting Robin off the city logo won’t change that.

Nottingham took it on the chin in the 1980s, and even before, it wasn’t the nicest of English towns. The rebranding efforts are to make it more of a cappuccino-sipping, loft-apartment-dwelling place, and maybe, that’s all right. But in marketing, one plays to one’s strengths. History gave Nottingham an icon that rivals Mickey Mouse (and it’s hard to see Walt’s company get rid of the little rodent to use a capital “D” as its logo). Perhaps, it’s all a plot. After all, Robin Hood was also known as Robin of Loxley, which isn’t in Nottinghamshire at all but in Warwickshire. Maybe the Loxley town council members want Robin Hood for themselves.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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