A rainbow-colored lotus illustration is not the logo of a “sex toy company,” contrary to former broadcaster Jay Sonza’s Facebook post that insinuates presidential candidate Leni Robredo’s campaign team designed its new logo off this.
And the company Sonza was referring to does not sell adult toys but is a blog about adult toys.
Sonza made the erroneous claim on Tuesday a day after Robredo’s campaign manager Bam Aquino posted the new symbol of her campaign. It shows four petals in pink, blue, red and green, and in different shapes and sizes. An illustration of the sun from the Philippine flag is at the center.
This led Sonza to ask if Aquino was a “sex pervert,” saying the new logo resembled that of a “sex toy company”:
Kahawig kasi ito ng logo ng isang sex toy company (This looks similar to the logo of a sex toy company).
In reality, the image Sonza was harping on is a page element, not a logo, of the adult toys blog he misidentified as a “sex toy company.” The blog used the lotus image in place of text bullets in one of its pages. The blog also bears a different logo.
The lotus illustration found in the adult toys blog also has five identical petals in red, orange, yellow, green and blue–unlike Robredo’s new campaign logo.
Searching “rainbow lotus” and “rainbow lotus logo” in the illustration or icon category of image resource websites Shutterstock, Dreamstime and Adobe Stock Photos also yielded several lotus illustrations with an identical color scheme and similar petal shape to the adult blog’s lotus image. These image resource websites are commonly used for graphic design, including logo making.
The lotus flower is usually associated with purity and enlightenment, especially in Buddhist art and literature.
The news site Politiko reported this false claim yesterday, saying in its headline: “Sleazy does it! Bam Aquino rips off Robredo’s new logo from sex toy site.”
Abante, a tabloid, published an article today with the headline: “Nagkataon lang ba? Bagong kakampink logo hawig sa sex toy site (Just a coincidence? New kakampink logo looks similar to sex toy site)”
Sonza’s post has received more than 21,000 reactions and 1,500 shares. Some comments said the post was “malicious” and a sign of “dirty politicking.” (CC)