‘Hideous’ Malaysia tourism logo featuring ape in shades will be redesigned

Malaysia’s new government will change an official tourism logo featuring an orangutan wearing sunglasses after it sparked a storm of mockery, a minister said Tuesday.

The “Visit Malaysia 2020” logo has an image of the orangutan with its arm around a proboscis monkey, a picture of a turtle – also sporting shades – and multi-coloured, uneven lettering.

It was released in January as part of a campaign to attract more tourists to the tropical Southeast Asian country but it was widely panned for being ugly and outdated, with thousands signing a petition calling for it to be dumped.

Despite the criticism, the then-tourism minister stood by the design, which also includes a retro image of Kuala Lumpur’s iconic Petronas Twin Towers.

But the scandal-plagued government of prime minister Najib Razak was booted out of power in May, and new Tourism Minister Mohamaddin Ketapi is now pledging to alter the logo.

A contest will be held to redesign it, he was cited as saying in local media, but he insisted it was not being dumped entirely.