BoM backpedals on ‘Bureau’ rebrand after Tanya Plibersek rains on its parade

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The Bureau of Meteorology has backtracked on its request to no longer be referred to as “the BoM”, admitting Australians can call the agency whatever they like after a public rebuke from the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek.

Following days of derision online over the weather bureau’s attempt to change its own nickname and not be referred to by its acronym, the Bureau conceded it couldn’t force media or the public to follow its request.

“The community is welcome to refer to the Bureau in any way they wish, including referring to us as the ‘BoM’,” a spokesperson told Guardian Australia.

“It is up to individual media outlets to determine their style guidelines.”

The backdown came two days after the agency asked media organisations to only refer to it by its full name, or shorthand as “the Bureau” – not the widely used “BoM”, or “weather bureau”. The media-wide alert sparked further derision online after it was discovered that the bureau appeared to have failed to reserve the Twitter accounts it had announced it would move to.

Plibersek said she was confused by the request, and later shot down the rebranding attempt by saying Australians should be free to call it whatever they like.

“My focus and the focus of the BoM should be on weather, not branding,” Plibersek said on Wednesday.

“The Bureau of Meteorology, the BoM – Australians will make up their own minds about what they call it.”

Guardian Australia yesterday revealed an 18-month rebrand of the bureau cost more than $220,000, including cash to update the organisation’s visual style and logo, conduct research, develop pull-up banners and support media engagement.

Asked whether the bureau would continue with its rebrand, including plans to change Twitter handles from @BOM to @TheBureau, a spokesperson would only reiterate that “using our full name reflects the correct title of the Agency”.

“Deep engagement with our partners, customers, stakeholders and staff has shown that the Bureau of Meteorology is known by different names in different parts of the community, and this is in part due to the differences in how our name and visual identity are expressed across different channels,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

“Their feedback has indicated that this variability can sometimes reduce effectiveness of our messaging.”

The statement went on to confirm that people could refer to the BoM “in any way they wish”, including as BoM.

“As part of the Bureau’s brand refresh the Bureau sought support from media outlets to refer to us as the Bureau of Meteorology as it underscores our position as the national authority for reliable, accurate and trusted weather, water, climate and oceans information,” the spokesperson said.

It is expected the cost and reasons behind the rebrand, commenced under the previous Coalition government, will be pursued through the Senate estimates process beginning later this month.

The bureau’s current Australia-wide account, @BOM_AU, had earlier this week “liked” several tweets joking about the proposed naming updates.

One tweet liked by the account, from satirical news site the Chaser, reads: “We request that from here on our the press please use our organisation’s full title the Bureau of Chasereology”.

Another tweet liked by the @BOM_AU account reads: “I honestly can’t see how ‘The Bureau’ is more readily apprehensible than ‘The BOM’.”