Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Two Minutes Hate

PepsiCo's New Logo Designs


I'm sure you've all seen the new Pepsi logos and quite possibly the various jokes and commentary on them, I know I am far from the first person to hate them. But I still have to throw in my voice to tell Pepsi how much they screwed up. I was disturbed by the logos when I first saw them in the store but it was the commercial during the superbowl that showed both the old and new logos on bottles that really brought out my anger.


Pepsi had an iconic red, white, and blue wave logo. It was a logo that was clean and smooth and just a solid, easily recognizable logo. The wave was soothing yet energetic, calm yet it motion. It contained elements of patriotism (it was almost like a waving flag) but also seemed zen yin-yang like in its balance between the red and blue with neutral white in the middle.


The new logos have lost all of that...yes logos, each product has its own logo (similar to the others but with their own twist). Seems like they are diluting the brand to me. The new logos are not balanced, attractive, or patriotic (although GF-Unit says she saw some news report talking about how they were based on Obama's symbol and campaign). They look like blobs...smeared blobs. They repulse me every time I seem them in the store.



I am not sure what made Pepsi decide to take this route (supposedly it is based on this advertising treatise - read it some time for a laugh, you will find out that the Pepsi logo has gravitational pull and magnetic fields!). I guess I could see if there were actually going for the emoticon route to appeal to the younger generation but I can guarantee you that no one sees these blobs as emoticons. Here is a small sampling:





These logos are going to look even stupider in a couple years...pretty much whenever anything tries to look futuristic it ends up looking very dated in a couple years. Plus this re-badging just seems like a lame attempt to make yourself seem relevant and hip. Reminds me of when MC Hammer became Hammer - no one believed the new gangsta-rapper image, it just seemed lame. Take a cue from Coca-Cola...go back to your roots and your classic designs, your new ones are tacky.

PS - I really hate that I now have to drink "MTN DEW" instead of Mountain Dew. Really? Was it that much harder to spell out mountain?


End Hate

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad that I'm not the only person in the world that cares about stuff like this. Thanks for making me feel a little better about myself.

Thad

kelly said...

And bring back that new-fangled Crystal Pepsi while you're at it, ya whipper snappers!

Lax Guy said...

I'm boycotting Pepsi b/c the logo is ultra lame. The other thing that they've done to grind me is changing Pepsi One to Pepsie Edge b/c it's more "manly." Screw that. A real man is unafraid to drink Diet or "One" or "Zero." I don't want a soda named after a Shave Gel or Wrestler...