Did Meta Steal Their New Logo?

It happens in music all the time. You hear artists being sued by other artists for stealing their riffs or melodies, whether it’s Ed Sheeran being accused of ripping off Let’s Get In On by Marvin Gaye or a 3 chord progression being stolen by Lady Gaga.

The one thing in common though is that none of them ever actually end up paying for it. Because all in all, they haven’t stolen anything. They just happen to have developed a section of music that sounds similar to another already created. They didn’t go out looking to steal someone else’s music, and why would they? They are such highly listened to artists, that if they do, you can guarantee someone would know and point it out.

If that’s the case then. Did Meta steal their new logo?

Meta vs M-Sense

When you put them side by side, they do look VERY similar. It’s the same base concept by encompassing the ‘M’ of their brand names in this loop style logo, there are also some differences though. The obvious being colour and the less obvious being the more rounded nature of the Meta logo.

Was it a steal then?

Probably not. I would stick this in the same realm as having the same 3 chord progression in a song, it may sound, or in this case look, similar but really is it’s own brand.

Here’s why.

Logo vs. Brand

If you’ve ever known of a brand designer or brand strategist you’ll have heard this a million or more times.

‘A brand is not a logo’

And they are of course correct in that statement. A logo is actually a very small part of a brand that reaches much further internally and externally. The part that we most associate with a brand, is really more just a ‘stamp of approval’ than the bulk of the branding itself.

That means when we are looking at branding projects like this, we need to look more than just skin deep.

• What does the brand stand for?
• What field is it in?
• And yes, what does the logo mean?

There is a lot more you can go into about brand strategy and the far reaching world of brands, but that would be a blog for another time.

So instead, leave with this.

How to handle a lookalike from a big company

When it comes down to it, there is no real way you can prove if your logo was stolen or not. There are so many ideas out there and so many designers, there is bound to be some mixing of ideas and concepts that happen. Especially when you both decide your logo icon is going to be an ‘M’ of some kind.

On top of that you expect large companies like Meta to have protocols in place to make sure they aren’t ripping off anyone else, or in their case it’s probably some AI that tries to match it to others to make sure there is no crossover.

With that all in mind though, there is no reason to stress out over someone’s logo being similar to yours (unless they are a direct competitor). Instead, handle it in style like M-sense did.

They used this opportunity to promote their brand and get on the hype train for Meta with Tweets like this:

Did you know that stress triggers #migraines? We can help 📲 🤓

Get the app: https://t.co/d1ZV1j6Jrf#meta #migraineawareness #thereisanappforthat #digitalhealth pic.twitter.com/VAgeaJu2xq

— M-sense Migräne (@msense_app) October 31, 2021

We are very honoured that @facebook felt inspired by the logo of our migraine app – maybe they’ll get inspired by our data privacy procedures as well 👀 🤓
#dataprivacy #meta #facebook pic.twitter.com/QY7cota36r

— M-sense Migräne (@msense_app) October 29, 2021

Perfect examples of how to handle any situation.

They could have gone on and started tweeting about how Meta stole their logo, blah blah blah, but instead they took the high ground, made something witty and SHAREABLE about it.

If you think your brand needs a refresh, get in touch with us. We’ll make it sensational!