Rebranding a university

My former employer, the University of Western Ontario, has rebranded itself as Western University, changing both its official name and its logo. Coverage from the London (Ontario!) Free Press here and the new university home page here.

There has been talk of this for a long time - the issue was raised during my time at UWO in the late 1990s. One  fellow in the business school suggested the name "Marlboro University" as "Marlboro" has the strongest brand recognition in the world (or did at that time) and there was some loose historical connection to someone called Marlboro that could have been used as a justification. Over in the Social Sciences Building we came up with "London School of Economics".

The key question, of course, is the extent to which the rebranding makes Western more like Northwestern and less like Western Michigan. My guess is, not so much.

Hat tip: Jenny Hunt