‘(Carney’s) creative team definitely took a short cut,’ MetCredit’s CEO Brian Summerfelt says
The CEO of MetCredit, a national collection agency, is asking the campaign of Liberal leader hopeful Mark Carney to stop using a logo that looks uncannily similar to his company’s.
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The logo for Carney is a red capitalized letter M with a maple leaf in the centre. The logo for MetCredit is also a red capitalized letter M with a maple leaf in the centre.
In an emailed statement to the National Post on Friday, MetCredit’s CEO Brian Summerfelt said he did not work with Carney’s campaign team, nor did he give them permission to use MetCredit’s logo. He did not authorize the logo for “apparent borrowing,” he said.
“(Carney’s) creative team definitely took a short cut. Symbols should usually be researched first,” said Summerfelt to the National Post, adding that he sent an email to Carney’s campaign on Thursday night.
The email he sent reads as follows, addressed to Carney: “My logo is a registered trademark. The one created for your campaign is too close for comfort. Please cease using it. Thank you.”
The current version of the MetCredit logo was approved as a trademark by the federal government in June 2022, according to an official document shared with the National Post.
For Carney’s logo, the two sides of the M are parallel, whereas the sides of MetCredit’s M are at an angle going outward — yet Summerfelt and other users on social media still noticed how alike they were, including Alberta MP Michelle Rempel Garner.
“That’s a beautiful logo, Mark….. but we’re apolitical!” a post from the MetCredit X account wrote, signed by Summerfelt.
Carney’s campaign did not immediately respond to the National Post’s request for comment.
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