Amazon quietly changed its new app icon this week after an internet mob said the initial design resembled the facial hair of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In January, the company announced the new icon, changing from the years-long blue shopping cart to a brown cardboard box. The box included the well-known Amazon smile, as well as what appeared to be a strip of blue packing tape that some said looks like Hitler’s notorious mustache.
In response to the social media outcry, Amazon quietly adjusted the tape’s design this week, removing the jagged edges and adding a fold to the right side.
“Amazon changed its app logo because people said it looked too much like Hitler’s mustache,” Complex UK tweeted, sharing a visual comparison of the two logos.
The New York Post reported that Amazon said it “is always exploring new ways to delight our customers.”
“We designed the new icon to spark anticipation, excitement, and joy when customers start their shopping journey on their phone, just as they do when they see our boxes on their door step,” a company spokesperson told The Post in an email.
The logo change is the first icon update in over five years.
Prior to the change, social media exploded with comments on the so-called Hitler-esque design.
“Amazon’s new app logo be looking like they’re the THIRD most downloaded in the “Reich” section,” one Twitter user wrote, referencing the Nazi regime in Germany led by Hitler.
Not everyone was on board with the criticism, however, with one person tweeting, “Well, I mean, to see hitler’s moustache in a ripped scotch one must really think of hitler all the time, ’cause I still don’t see al that resemblance… The internet is too exaggerated in everything.”
“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,” another Twitter user responded.
“I don’t know that I’d call [Amazon’s] logo an ‘uncanny resemblance’ to Hitler. But I can see how someone might read into it, if they were looking for it,” a Twitter user said, sharing an image of the Amazon logo photoshopped to appear as Hitler’s mustache.
Some social media users said the updated logo with the folded tape resembles the character Aang from the children’s animated show “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”
“Does the new Amazon app logo look like Aang or am I crazy?” one user tweeted.
