Ontario Cannabis Store - so uncontroversial it's controversial

The retail arm of the Ontario government's cannabis monopoly is to be known as the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS). Nothing too controversial there. Simple and straight to the point.

The brand logo is equally simple amd straightforward, to the point of boring and unimaginative. It is a simple black-on-white circle with three black-on-white letters (you guessed it - "O", "C" and "S") in the same simple font as you probably write your emails in. This will be used for both the bricks-and-mortar and online stores (the latter to be run through Shopify's online system).

I get that they are looking to remain uncontroversial (the designers' brief was apparently to reflect a "safe simple and approachable environment"). However, what might surprise you is that the design, by top advertising agency Leo Burnett, cost the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (and therefore us, the taxpayers) around $650,000. That's a lot of money for something that your 6-year old could run up on Microsoft Paint (if that still exists).

Personally, I don't really care that much - it's not going to enourage me to run to the pot store (or otherwise). But it just seems ironic that the ultra-safe, ultra-boring design is in fact turning out to be quite controversial, judging by some of the Twitter coverage.