WEXFORD COUNTY Council has been left embarrassed when a QR code issued alongside its brand new corporate logo provided a link to a support site for members of the homosexual and transgender community in Wexford, rather than the Wexford County Council homepage.
Presumably the code, which is a type of barcode that can be scanned on mobile phones, was supposed to provide a quick link to the County Council website. Instead, when you scan the code with a QR scanner on your smartphone, it links you to www.gaywexford.ie.
It was with great fanfare that Wexford County Council unveiled a new logo that would help “improve public awareness” of council services and ensure they are “clearly branded”.
Communications Officer for the Council, David Minogue, received praise from various councillors as he officially unveiled the logo, which was displayed alongside the QR code and the contact details of Wexford County Council, and he declared that it had been done at a cost of €2,000 and was the product of around 6 months work.
What is hard to understand is how, having spent €2,000 and spent 6 months on the project, nobody thought to check the QR code printed alongside the new logo before it was unveiled and circulated to councillors and members of the press all over the south east and indeed the country. The logo, complete with the wrong QR code, is also listed on Wexford County Council’s website.
The website which the code provides a link to, www.gaywexford.ie, is the LGBT website for Wexford which provides information and supports for members of the gay and transgender community. While it may be a great resource for the LGBT community across the county, it is probably not what County Manager Tom Enright had in mind when he stated that the new corporate logo would be “helping to project the image of Wexford County Council as a forward-thinking, modern and progressive organisation.”
The council logo which was circulated complete with the wrong QR code providing a link to gaywexford.ie.
According to the press release which accompanied the new logo complete with the QR code link to the wrong website, it was to be “rolled out in the coming weeks and appear on all Wexford Council stationary, council vehicles, corporate signage and promotional materials.”