Friday, November 29, 2013

Lyft Brand Identity: The Mustache Ride

Lyft is a carpool-style cab system where people can get rides from people in their own cars, and the cost is a donation, rather than a set fee, making it less expensive than taxis. And you can always tell a Lyft car because it has a big furry pink mustache attached to the car's front grille. But the thing the mustache always makes me think of is the term: "mustache ride". And seeing as how a mustache ride is something else entirely, and the term itself has a definite creep-factor these days, I wonder if the mustache is the best idea.

On the other hand, if everyone else thinks about mustache rides when they see the big pink mustaches on the cars, perhaps the little giggle will make everyone remember Lyft that much more. But then again, it might creep them out instead.

But hey, maybe Lyft also offers mustache rides, and that was the original idea for the business, but they couldn't officially tell us this, so they came up with the mustache grille as a sly way of getting the message out?

In any case, Mustache Rides is a lot easier to remember than Lyft, so despite the creepy connotation, maybe they ought to change their name to Mustache Rides. With the mustaches on the cars, everyone would instantly recognize them and remember the name of the company, which most people I know struggle to remember when asked about it nowadays as it is.

This is what the Lyft pink car mustache looks like (I think it's made out of fuzzy bathroom carpet material):

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fd/Lyft_Car_Pink_Mustache.jpg