Cursive writing continues to get no respect. Johnson & Johnson has announced a new modern logo to reflect its focus on pharmaceuticals and medical devices. The new logo will replace the signature script that has been used since 1887, which was based on the signature of J&J’s co-founder James Wood Johnson. The old logo will still be used for consumer products like baby shampoo from Kenvue, a new company recently spun off from J&J.
Vanessa Broadhurst, a company executive vice president, said that the new logo, which includes a different shade of red, recognizes J&J’s shift into a “pure play health care company.” This change comes after J&J narrowed its focus to pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
According to Johnson & Johnson marketing analysts, the old signature logo was showing its age in an era of texting and emojis. Also, many children no longer learn to write cursive in school, so they were not necessarily reading the signature. Johnon & Johnson says the new logo is easier to process and almost draws your attention to it.
The signature logo was one of the longest-used company emblems in the world, according to J&J. However, people likely identified the script logo more with the Kenvue products they see on drugstore shelves, such as Band-Aids, Listerine, and Tylenol. The J&J branding on products like Band-Aids will gradually be removed, according to a Kenvue spokesperson.
The consumer business helped J&J become the world’s biggest health care products maker, with annual sales topping $90 billion. But its pharmaceutical and medical device divisions had easily surpassed it in size when the spinoff was announced in late 2021.
