Now councillors want it to be the superbrand for the Super City, to be used in all communications, marketing and advertising by every council controlled organisation (CCO).
It is to ensure "all branding and external communications devices reinforce the ownership link back to Auckland Council".
To achieve that, a "brand navigation group" is to be established to ensure "supply efficiencies, consistency and clarity of brand communications for all Aucklanders".
Put simply, they want ratepayers to be able to identify the services they are paying for and be suitably proud, thankful or grumpy.
But the Auckland Council's various trading offshoots seem to go out of their way to hide their parentage.
Waterfront Auckland's homepage, for example, gives absolutely no hint that it's not a private developer, but a development arm of the council.
Watercare Services similarly hides its ownership under a bushel. You have to delve down to the third level of its website before ownership is revealed.
The same shyness goes for Ports of Auckland, Auckland Zoo, The Edge and even the institution we once called the Auckland Public Art Gallery, but is now Auckland Art Gallery.
At least, unlike the others listed, the gallery does bury a small Auckland Council logo, complete with pohutukawa, at the bottom of its home page, but it's in non-regulation grey.
To confuse the issue, a newzealand.govt.nz logo runs alongside as though the Government shares ownership, which it doesn't.
Auckland Transport also, rather confusingly, has the same government link at the bottom of its page, but at least at the top of the page, under its name, it declares itself "an Auckland Council organisation". No pohutukawa logo though.
Over the years, there have been several efforts to create an Auckland brand, with mixed success.
In 2007, Auckland City chief executive David Rankin unveiled a wavy blue logo which led to complaints of plagiarism from Triangle Television, a part backdown from the council and a $37,000 payout to Triangle for legal fees.
A year later, the regional council's business arm came up with a lava-coloured letter A, the frayed legs apparently simulating volcanic eruptions. It's that unlovely image which now appears on Rugby World Cup promotional material and so annoys councillor Cathy Casey.
She says: "I am angry that the raggy 'A' is the only sign of the $100 million that Auckland ratepayers have poured into the Rugby World Cup."
This week's decision relates to the seven big CCOs, and the councillors' focus seems to be on the promotional benefits to ratepayers and other consumers. But branding these organisations with the pohutukawa would also be a constant reminder to the private enterpriser board members of who they are there to serve.
What's not clear is whether the organisations run by the big CCOs will also have to wear the council badge. I've listed some of them above. The port company, the art gallery, the zoo. The first has a blue and white logo incorporating a couple of wavy lines and an outline of Rangitoto. The gallery relies on distinctive lettering and the zoo employs an elephant head.
For me, it's time we took judge Bob Harvey's advice and embraced the pohutukawa. "It's a stunning design," he said. "We love it."
