The Internet Has Spoken: Airbnb's New Logo Looks Naughty

Airbnb’s logo redesign set off a flurry of Internet commentary. The peer-to-peer accommodation website touted its new mark as a symbol of belonging—the feeling of acceptance its guests have when renting homes from their hosts in foreign places. The larger online public, however, offered different interpretations of Airbnb’s ostensibly benign upside-down heart logo, which to some resembles breasts, buttocks, a uterus, a vagina, and, of course, male genitalia.

Joe Gebbia, the company’s co-founder, says the design team did some “very serious semiotics work” to see how the symbol would resonate among different cultures. The response, he says, was “resoundingly positive.” One wonders whether those semiotics turned up any sexual comparisons.