Yes, nothing signifies "free books" like a Soviet hammer-and-sickle.
Who knows where the world would be today if the USSR hadn't kept the flame of publisher freedom alive through the darkest days of the cold war, when dissidents had to smuggle mimeographed copies of banned books into Paris, London, and New York.
The Soviets banned books and imprisoned dissident authors. The icon's graphic design romanticizes Soviet imagery, and in the context of 'free' books.
That's a different level of values-incongruity than using cavemen as a minority-group stand-in for laughs.
Also, I don't expect cavemen to be a threat in my lifetime, but censorship in the service of a new utopian program is an everpresent danger. Rehabilitating Soviet symbols to mean something cool and related to free expression obscures an important lesson from the 20th century.
It's an interesting point, and one I'm surprised hasn't been brought up yet in the conversation. In fact, I've never received an email from a customer or potential customer about the negative aspects of the icon, while we've gotten a bunch from people who really like the approach to design and copywriting on both the site, the description page, and the app itself.
So, two things:
a) Business side. We certainly lose out on some customers who are turned off by the icon- that's probably the case with yourself. You posted in another thread saying you'd be interested in our upcoming Free Audiobooks app, so maybe we'll lose that sale based on the icon.
Based on past performance I'm confident that the upside of extra sales gained balances the downside of sales lost- that's what makes the icon effective. It stands out because most folks wouldn't be comfortable offering it, which is why there aren't a million icons that look just like it. It's a risk, and it's paying off.
b) Romanticization of a brutal dictatorship. I feel it mocks the Soviets more than anything- it's over the top and campy. Like on freebooksapp.com - "Free Books. Better than vodka. Great success!". Cheap laugh? For sure. But it converts phenomenally, with 2.5 minutes average time on site and 15% bounce rate in primary markets, and positive customer feedback in email.
If you look at the browse page (freebooksapp.com/browse) it's clearly done campy/mocking, not romanticizing- "selection like glorious grocery store!".
Taking the application flow as a whole, I just don't think there's any way that anyone can take this as a vote for communism. I'm glad you made the comment, though, because it's good to have feedback in the negative side of the box- it concerned me in the back of my head that I hadn't had ANY negative emails about it.
It wouldn't necessarily make me a non-customer, but it would give me some pause. The campy look of the web page puts me in a better frame of mind than just the tiny pairing of 'hammer & sickle + free books'.
I was also wondering if in your home cultural context, it was more clearly ironic, because no one could possibly take the symbol seriously.
I wouldn't expect you to change it if -- as your article indicates -- the icon seems a strong net sales boost.
But I would also hope that many other clean, colorful, distinctive icons would have the same effect -- because if App Store customers have uniquely warm feelings towards totalitarian graphic design, I have deeper worries. :)
If you needed to have it both ways, you could work in a dissident 'samizdat' angle and put the symbol upside-down -- retaining the motif (including mock-Cyяillic) without any connotations of endorsement.
> Especially in this case: these guys are Hungarians and should really know better.
You seem to define "knowing better" as "agreeing with me". Since these people are Hungarians, I'd guess they know more about Hungarian culture than you do, particularly what symbols are considered offensive in that culture.
If most people wouldn't find the symbolism offensive, in practical terms it isn't a problem. (Of course, anything will be offensive to someone).
Who knows where the world would be today if the USSR hadn't kept the flame of publisher freedom alive through the darkest days of the cold war, when dissidents had to smuggle mimeographed copies of banned books into Paris, London, and New York.
Wait, that's not how it was?