Pepsi's new logo: What were they thinking?

by Bruce Watson, Posted Oct 29th 2008 @ 12:30PM

A few months back, I read Lovemarks, a book about the future of corporate branding. Written by Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi, the book explored the hard-core loyalty that some customers feel for certain brands. As a Crest kid, a Tom Petty fan and an intense devotee of Kosciusko mustard, I can absolutely attest to the power of brand devotion; on the other hand, as a former Ben and Jerry's booster, I also know just how easy it is for a brand to destroy that relationship.

Of course, the ultimate example of a disastrous rebranding is Coca-Cola's 1985 decision to change its formula. As customers rebelled, the company tried to explain that numerous blind taste tests had revealed that New Coke was a more popular flavor. The mob, of course, was unmoved and, within three months, Coke was back to its old blend.

It's worth noting that Coke's originial justification for changing recipes was its competition with Pepsi. Now, a little over twenty years later, Pepsi is investing in a little rebranding of its own, with a new logo and a new can design. Starting in November, the company will be unrolling a $1.2 billion worldwide campaign to launch its fresh look.

The new design is very similar to the old one, except that the red and blue section, rather than remaining separated by a white middle, actually converge on one side. It's supposed to resemble a smile, but the comparison is a bit stretched. One commentator described the new design as being somewhat phallic, while others felt that it was similar to Barack Obama's campaign logo.

Personally, I think the new logo is more yonic than phallic. What it resembles most of all, however, is they way that my eyes used to look when I fell asleep in my contact lenses. One side appears fused shut with eye gook, the other seems to be wrenching itself open. While this isn't exactly what I want to imagine when I'm staring over a bank of soda bottles, I have to admit that the comparison will be pretty effective when I'm looking for something to wake me up!

Filed Under: Ingredients, Drink Recipes, Fast Food, New Products
Tags: america, Ben and Jerrys, BenAndJerrys, Coke, comfort food, Crest, Kevin Roberts, KevinRoberts, kosciusko, Lovemarks, Pepsi, soda, soft drinks

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

10-29-2008 @1:10PM Kelly said... Kudos for using yonic correctly. The foodie masses are now more educated
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10-29-2008 @1:57PM arasmus2 said... Did we notice that the logo is different for each product? like the white is supposed to represent how many calories there is in the can or something?
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10-29-2008 @1:53PM texasannie said... It does look a bit like the Obama logo. That doesn't bother me, but the ghastly sweet taste of Pepsi does. I will continue my lifelong tradition of not drinking it.
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10-29-2008 @2:08PM Monika said... I never knew there was a Kosciusko mustard. Is it from Kosciusko? Does it massacre the name like the town does? (Koz-ee-es-ko rather than ka-shoosh-ko) Sorry.. Bit of a Tadeusz Kosciuszko fan and the latter Kosciuszko Squadron.
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10-29-2008 @2:14PM Bruce Watson said... Monika-
No need to apologize! I'm a big fan of the man myself, which is why I tried the stuff in the first place. It's basically a hearty brown German-style mustard and you can pronounce it any way you like!

(I go with Kosh-choo-shko, in spite of the fact that the scydilla that used to be on the bottom of the first "s" disappeared, along with the "z" after the second "s"!)

And, yes, I have been known to geek out from time to time.
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10-31-2008 @2:34PM PC800 said... Coke most certainly did NOT go back to it's "old blend". We all know they reformulated with HFCS and renamed it to "Coke Classic", which was the whole purpose of the "New Coke" sham to begin with. It was just a marketing gimmick.

The REAL Coke, the pre-1985 Coke made with sugar instead of HFCS, was never seen again here in the U.S., except as an import.
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11-03-2008 @9:59PM dholway said... I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Pepsi drinker, and I have never liked their labels. Their new labels have regressed from lame to truly awful, though. The font for the lettering is hideous, in my humble opinion, especially the 'e' that reminds me of a Simpsonsesque burping mouth. The symbol is supposed to look like a smile? To me it looks like an evil eye, with the red part being the downcast upper lid. In me, at least, they haven't lost a customer.

I'd definitely buy a Pepsi Ice Cucumber, however!
http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=1980
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