Monday, October 27, 2008

Pepsi Is Smiling

In the past few months we've blogged about new logo redesigns for Applebee's, Walmart and Best Buy, and it seems that Pepsi is now joining in with a new, smiling, brand redesign.

Pepsi has evolved it's logo a number of times in it's history, but this latest move is pretty drastic in the grand scheme of identity evolutions. Where did the white wave in the middle of the pepsi logo go? Oh, it turned into a smile. Yes, a smile, at least according to Pepsi that's what it's supposed to be. Sorry, never would have guessed that if I hadn't read it in AdAge. Apparently the 'smile' will change based on what product it is on. I'm not a fan of the new 'smile' mark, or the new, unnecessary name change of Mountain Dew to Mtn Dew. I do,however, like the super clean new packaging of Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max, just not their new weird 'smiling' logos.

On the flip side, in this new age of digital media, where a brand's logo will be altered by consumers whether the brand likes it or not, Joseph Jaffe suggests in Join the Conversation that in this digital age, brands need to be more flexible with their brand standards. Part of me wants to scream no to that idea, especially when I see casual and prevalent use of drop shadows and badly set type, but another part of me understands the necessity to let go a little in this new media age. In that respect, I think this new approach from Pepsi is a nice step in that direction and works as a flexible mark. I just wish they hadn't messed with the wave, especially since no one is going to understand the new mark as a smile without some prodding.

What do you think? Do you interpret the new Pepsi logos as smiles? Do you think this new flexible brand approach will work?

3 comments:

gesika22 said...

I do like how the e in Pepsi resembles the smile in the logo.

However, I'm not all that excited of the overall new logo. At first I thought that the normal Pepsi had a medium smile and that Diet Pepsi had a smaller smile since it has less calories. This would then lead me to think Pepsi Max should have an even smaller smile but it doesn't. (Sorry, I don't know my Pepsi products, but is Pepsi Max suppose to be "better" for you than Diet? That's what I'm assuming.)

Also, don't know either why they feel they need to change Mountain to Mtn. Maybe once I get into texting and abbreviating everything I will understand better.

Megan said...

It looks like the 'e' resembles the old iconic wave a bit. I like it.

I like the new packaging. It definitely looks more modern. The type on the Sierra Mist bottle is wild--makes me want to take an eye exam!

Anonymous said...

Chris Brogan on logo updates: http://www.chrisbrogan.com/more-about-the-new-pepsi-logo/