Why Dunkin’ and Lego rebrands succeeded – but X missed the mark

Twitter has swapped the fluffy bird that used to symbolise the social media platform for a spindly black X.

Ditching the company’s well-known logo and changing its name to a letter often associated with danger, death and the unknown is only the latest user-aggravating step Elon Musk has taken since he bought Twitter in October 2022 for $44 billion.

But it’s the most visually jarring one.

The reaction has mainly been a mix of ambivalence, ridicule and scorn. For the most part, longtime Twitter users are unhappy at what they perceived as another unnecessary change that’s eroding their enthusiasm for the social media platform.