Pepsi Rebranding

Pepsi
The new Pepsi Branding Effort.

With all of my recent traveling and hard deadlines I didn't even notice that Pepsi released its new branding effort, in the wake if sales slipping 2%, in early November. This logo is said to be smiling or grinning— an updated version of their previous mark that was developed in the early '50s (see below).

The Evolution of Pepsi
A look back of how Pepsi's brand has evolved over the years.

My first impression of the logo was positive. I saw it today in a commercial during a football playoff game. The commercial, celebrating the New Year, was designed in a vector-looking, clean and colorful burst of energy that was centered around typography. As I started to dig for information about it online, I read a lot of negative comments. So, I decided to dig deeper into the creation of it. It took them 5 months and a ton of money to develop the brand.

Things I like about the logo are that it is clean and simple and I like that the graphic seems to really stand alone. In fact, when I saw the commercial I didn't know it was a Pepsi commercial (it doesn't say Pepsi until the end) but thought it was because the mark looked similar to the Pepsi logo. That seems to always be a huge issue when rebranding a company. You need to change the logo enough so that it feels fresh, new and fashion-forward while at the same time holding onto the existing brand identity. With this said, I think the logo is very successful and the campaign works for me. I also appreciate the minimalist intention of this logo. It seems to be going the direction of other popular brands like Apple.

Pepsi Cans
I thought this image was kinda cool looking.

What I don't like are the variations of the logo. I don't like that the mouth changes sizes based on the type of drink. Are they trying to say one drink is better than the other? That doesn't make sense. Why do they get to tell us what they think is the best drink? Shouldn't we get to make that decision? Also, in the midst of a hugely successful "Change" campaign brought to you by Barack Obama [represented by a very cutting edge logo campaign (will post the details soon)], the Pepsi logo almost mimics the strong elements of the Obama design. Maybe this was an oversight, or a coincidence, or done on purpose to play off the ideals of the "Change" theme and its place in America? I honestly don't even feel that the word "Pepsi" is necessary on the can. It seems to throw off the balance of the logo. I think the font is fine. It looks like they kept the wavy line from the old mark in the “e” of the word Pepsi. I like it but feel it is unnecessary since the new mark is so similar to the old one.

The Obama Logo
Flip this upside down and you basically have the the Pepsi logo.