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PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP) has joined the ranks of old, canned brands giving themselves brand new cans. As part of a $1.2 billion worldwide campaign designed to give its major soft drink flavors fresh new logos intended to recall "smiles," the new Pepsi packaging is being tactically leaked to influential marketing journalists. Blogger Peter Shankman was treated to an elaborate series of courier deliveries that culminated in a sample of the new can: the same royal blue hue, but clean-looking, polished to a metallic sheen, and sporting the sort of lower-case lettering that was last popular during the disco craze.
A few people have already pointed out that the new logo slightly resembles the one used by Barack Obama's current campaign. I don't see it myself. Both are circles, and both are red, white, and blue. But if anything, the Pepsi logo looks a whole lot like, well, the old Pepsi logo. And even that soon-to-retire yin-yangy logo, which came online in 2002 but was based on a decades-old design, looks more like Obama's stamp than the swishier new one.
If you really want to talk about cola conspiracies, let's go back to Coke's ill-fated makeover of 1985. Back then, it wasn't just the look that changed. In the same period, the recipe did, too. By the time the ill-fated New Coke was pulled and the so-called Classic Coke was back on shelves, Coke had fully swapped cane sugar for that ubiquitous industrial-grade sweetener, high fructose corn syrup. (Many Coke products made outside of the U.S., such as the Coke in Mexico, still use cane sugar, and it's easy to taste the difference that superior ingredients make.)
Lots of people think the whole New Coke fiasco was engineered to fail so that Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) could switch to the cheaper sweetener without jarring consumers. Snopes, the well-regarded urban myth busting site, says the situation was a little more complicated than that, but if you're like me, you're still skeptical.
But don't worry, brand loyalists. Pepsi's recipe isn't changing, just its costume, and you won't see the logo rolled out in earnest (signage, grocery store shelves, ads) until 2009. The tweak comes just in time, as Pepsico just announced it has to lay off 3,300 people and close six plants.
Not to be outdone, Coke just announced that starting next year, it will put calorie information on the front of its packaging instead of merely on the back. Given the fat-feeding capabilities of your average soda pop, though, with 240 calories in a 20 oz. bottle, that could turn out to be another marketing bungle for Big Red.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
10-28-2008 @ 4:34PM
TX CHL Instructor said...
I have a deep notch in my life around soda pop (or their cans), ever since I discovered that beverages containing phosphoric acid cause my restless leg syndrome (RLS) to get MUCH worse. When I cut out the "soft" drinks, my RLS subsided to the status of an occasional (and thankfully rare) minor nuisance.
10-28-2008 @ 5:02PM
Iridium said...
With the high profit margin on soda I wish they would switch back to cane sugar.
Seriously HFCS makes all soda taste heavy and sticky. New Coke was definately made so they could switch without people figuring out they did something to the old formula.
I know they made the E look like the old logo on purpose but it looks truly bad to me. The circle looks like an airline logo.
Overall it looks upmarket which is good but I'm sure they paid some advertising firm a few hundred million dollars to design this new identity. I could have done this is two minutes in my sleep. I would have charged Pepsi 1 million and gone home.
10-29-2008 @ 9:14AM
helen young said...
i don't like the new logo. just wanted to be heard.....
10-29-2008 @ 9:50AM
Glenn Cole said...
I love Pepsi but your new logo says OBAMA all over it....and if it looked to me like McCain I wouldn't buy it either....use the new logo and lose my family's support. I will be lobbying all my friends and associates to look and not to buy OBAMAs pepsi
10-29-2008 @ 11:48AM
jack said...
Has Pepsi gone away or discontinued the 12 and 24 packs. And why is it so hard to find Cafeen Free when ever you run a sale?
10-29-2008 @ 1:08PM
Roger said...
I have been drinking Pepsi for over 30yrs and this looks way to much like the Obama flag to me, now is a good time to quit.
10-29-2008 @ 1:39PM
Amy Stanley said...
Personally, I don't care what they do to the logo. I'm all about taste. Just don't change the Diet Pepsi and my life will continue to be good. I drink Diet Pepsi in the morning instead of coffee, sometimes I do a Diet pepsi Max for a change up. Keep up the good taste PEPSI!!!!
10-29-2008 @ 1:44PM
MV said...
As long as Pepsi keeps the flavor and the blue color, I don't care what the design on the packaging looks like!
10-29-2008 @ 3:26PM
2 B Trudy said...
I think Pepsi is betting on Obama. Like the article says, the new logo looks very very much like Obama's. That'll probably turn off a lot of anti-Obama types (like me).
10-29-2008 @ 4:47PM
Shaen said...
Yep, looks too much like a socialist's logo. Why not just post a communist red star instead?
Like my mother says, I should just switch to drinking water instead of dt. pepsi anyway.
10-30-2008 @ 7:47AM
KW said...
Pepsi gets flat to easy. I used to prefer pepsi over coke but now it's coke over pepsi. you need to change the product taste back and not the can!!!!
10-30-2008 @ 10:20AM
HERB GOLDMAN said...
PEPSI HAS BEEN MY FAVORITE SOFT DRINK FOR 60 YEARS. CHANGING THE LOGO ON THE CAN WILL DO NOTHING. CHANGE THE DRINK? THEY LOSE ME AS A CONSUMER.
11-01-2008 @ 6:14AM
J O H N said...
I cried when I heard about this and said.. This is really "" BEAT """... I like the old " catch a wave with pepsi" style of logo... this thing looks like a Salvadore Dali thing where its oozing off the side of a table,,, Logo stinks. flavor is still great!!
11-01-2008 @ 6:27PM
mark said...
looks like the new OBAMA flag will be all over pepsi I'VE ALWAYS BEEN A COKE DRINKER ANYWAY!!! PEPSI SUCKS PHOSPHORIC ACID
12-08-2008 @ 2:21AM
Mike said...
Pepsi is terrible and now the new can goes right along whats inside. I will always stay with Coca-Cola. P.S. I picked Coke in the Pepsi taste test!
12-08-2008 @ 3:44AM
princessleigh_06 said...
I know y'all wanna keep the 'newer generation' interrested, but you should never change a good thing. Pepsi doesn't even taste right anymore...
...Oh yeah, about the logo... It Sucks!!!
Why would you ever Discrace Pepsi like that? Putting Obama's logo on there like that is like getting the plague. Your customers are just gonna die off till there's nothing left.
...Jusy so you know, I've broken all relations with pepsi, and my beloved Mt. Dew... and I Hate Coke!!! The Pepsi Company has truely made the worst decision that could ever be recorded in the pages of our history books. Obama is going to kill us one way or the other, and you just handed him the sword.
1-02-2009 @ 12:01PM
Danielle said...
Logo is fine, new is good. What's bad is the PRICES!!! The 8-packs are a RIP OFF!!
Do the math, it raises the price of the can of soda from .20081 per can to .31 per can.
They use the same pricing stradegy ..4/$10, which is the handle everyone wants, but four 8 packs are 32 cans, not 48 cans...DO THE MATH PEOPLE!!!
DON't buy the 8 packs...COKE is doing hte same thing.
Iced Tea is looking better and better!
1-02-2009 @ 6:24PM
Mazzeh said...
I prefer the old Pepsi cans but I don't really feel much need to complain about the new ones. It's a simple market appeal. The resemblences between the new can and Obama's logo don't represent anything to do with Pepsi. It seems to me that, since Pepsi came first, Obama either somewhat copied Pepsi's logo or had it designed the way it was, not realizing the resemblance... Anyone who actually stop drinking Pepsi because they feel it looks too much like Obama's logo is clearly quite fickle, supported someone else, or was annoyed into quitting Pepsi by an Anti-Obama friend.
tl;dr?
Pepsi = yummy.
New Logo = Old one with edits
Pepsi with New Logo = yummy.
1-02-2009 @ 6:55PM
David Brown said...
I miss all product logo,s of the 50,s and 60,s to me they still have the best look. Foremost and Hiland Milk looked professional then. Pepsi in the red white and Light Blue looked very good. Steak N Shake looks best in the black and whit logo. We are in a dress down mode and nothing looks professional anymore. I think that is why Coke is so popular they have the same good look. A lot of places ruin themselves by change and initals instead of name. I have never returned to places after they change. It is like they have moved to the new generation and we are no longer important.
1-02-2009 @ 8:40PM
September said...
Hey Iridium, they did pay a million dollars for this stupid new logo and I hate it! Why do people have to totally mess up a good thing? They could have just changed the font on Pepsi and left the circle alone. Now the bottles look so generic, it looks like they are wanting to save on print ink by using basic three colors. I don't even like the font on the new pepsi, it looks pathetic and weak. I like Pepsi flavor, but I hate the new logo.