Joe, trying to figure out "balls-up" may have distracted you from the real punch line which is "Yeah, I heard about that!"

Click to see the old British Telecom logo.

And some of the fleet of vehicles that carried it.

Successive clockwise 90 degree rotations were scurrilously interpreted as:-

1. Minor cock-up
2. Major cock-up
3. Complete balls-up

Possibly the reason the logo isn't in use any more?

Ross