The Pepsi cola logo has had a number of face lifts over the years. The first logo was drawn by hand in 1898 by the multi-talented pharmacist Caleb Bradham, who also developed the drink.
Over the years the logo has changed fairly dramatically into a sophisticated typographic treatment in the early 1900s, with the pepsi “crown” appearing in the 1940s along with the addition of the colours blue and white to commemorate the war efforts of the U.S. In the 60’s the type changed from a script font to the now familiar bold sans serif. (My personal favourite is the 1973 logo. It’s so simple and attractive.)
So now Pepsi have updated their globe logo. Advertising Age has an article about the new look Pepsi are developing for their brand.
The white band in the middle of the logo will now loosely form a series of smiles. A “smile” will characterize brand Pepsi, while a “grin” is used for Diet Pepsi and a “laugh” is used for Pepsi Max.
Ehmm, what?
Here’s an example of one of the smiles – the new Pepsi logo;
When you look back at some of the lovely variations of the logo over the years, I think this is very disappointing. It looks like someone has been let loose with the liquify filter. It also looks very much like the Korean Air logo. 
.
What do you think about it?
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October 20th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
So now it’s Pepsi’s turn at re-branding itself. Seems like lots of big companies are on that path now.
I too like the 1973’s logo the best, and think that the “smile” looks more like a toothless grin.
inspirationbits last blog post..GAG: Get and Give
October 20th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
hi Vivien
Yeah, I can’t really see the point of the new one. I would love to offer my services for a redesign and I’d only charge a fraction!
October 28th, 2008 at 12:18 am
Personally, I think it looks a lot like the Obama campaign logo: http://www.thekmiecs.com/marketing/new-pepsi-logo-looks-like-obama-campaign-logo/
Adam Kmiecs last blog post..New Pepsi Logo Looks Like Obama Campaign Logo
October 28th, 2008 at 7:26 pm
That new logo looks like a poorly dressed overweight person… see technical drawing here… http://commercial-archive.com/node/145989
October 29th, 2008 at 5:32 am
LOL – I posted this too – this logo is horrible. Sorry – it makes no sense. The type makes it even worse. One comment I had was it looks like an upside down Obama logo – touche.
Carrrrrloss last blog post..Wassup 2008!
October 29th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Hi Adam and Carrrrrrlos, yes it does look like the Obama logo – but not as good! Adam I see you like the 70s version best too.
Karen Ann – very politely stated, ha ha! Thanks for the link.
November 8th, 2008 at 9:22 am
wow what a bunch of haters…I think the rebranding looks great! It’s simple and minimalistic and would look great on a pop can.
November 14th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
This new logo and font stinks. Bring back the 1973 design. It was the best.
November 14th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
I hear you John!
December 11th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I like the new design. Like it alot.
Slick and modern without being too ‘mechanical’.
I liked the history of logos you show here.
I linked your page in my recent blog: http://www.SodaIsGood.blogspot.com
I hope more people will see the nice work you did here!
December 19th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
i really adore the arrows guiding me to the different time periods of my FAV drink! gooooooo pepsi
))
January 1st, 2009 at 12:42 am
I suggest we boycott Pepsi for their lame attempts at promoting their products.
January 1st, 2009 at 6:12 am
Nobody wants the old anymore. Go future!
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:04 am
at first glance seems Old Spice Deodorant
January 5th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
I can’t find where the new logo has been purposefully designed to reflect the Obama campaign logo. I promise that should I find out that it was purposefully done, I will make sure to not drink Pepsi products any longer. I deplore companies and celebrities that take a political stance.
January 6th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
The new logo looks like a cross between the Korean Air logo and a Greatful Dead deadhead sticker. Nothing original here just like the Pepsi product , a pale over-sweet imatation of the superior “real thing” from Atlanta. I give it a C- for copy.
January 10th, 2009 at 8:07 am
I personally love the logo. It’s nice to drink a bottle that doesn’t have 1,000 weird designs on it like the one their last campaign had.
It’s simple and straight to the point.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Notice the red overwhelms the blue. There is no longer a peaceful fluency of the two. Scary scary stuff
January 14th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
I like the 1950 Bottle Cap
I think however it would be hard to put $1.50 on the top of the cap.
January 20th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Can’t anyone see that this is a natural progression of the Pepsi brand’s recent evolution? The 70’s logo has very little appeal, aside from retro nostalgia. It’s very two-dimensional, and the curves clash with the strong horizontals of the Pepsi type treatment.
More recently, Pepsi has obviously been trying to compensate for the flatness by embossing the logo. Nice attempt, but ultimately over-decorative window trimming… much like their recent labels, which are packed unnecessary detail, like swooshes and drop shadows. As a co-worker once said, “These labels make me want to go skydiving.”
This new logo takes the simple 70’s treatment you guys like so much… a return to minimalism (a la 60’s mod, in fact) and updates it with just a touch of depth and fluidity. It’s the same concept, but the parts fit together more neatly. It’s actually a very nice job… if there’s anything to complain about in the rebranding, it’s the dated-looking retro futurist type treatment on their new labels.
Jesses last blog post..No Country for Old Men and Pascal’s Wager
January 21st, 2009 at 4:12 pm
I was a senior Marketing Executive at PepsiCo Intl for close to 20 years. I also spent several years stateside before I left the organization.
The company lost its way in the Late 80’s. The legacy of Caleb Bradham (Inventor in New Bern, NC) is long gone.
The difference between Coke and Pepsi was always a more palatable (read sweeter and lower CO2) and friendlier mouth feel.
There has been a parade of book smart and consumer deaf hired guns that never understood the value of consumer brand legacy. Always looking for the next great quickie fix. However rarely has anyone of these folks been inside a corner store and spoken to the proprietor, let alone a consumer that isnt in a sterile and controlled focus group.
The result has been a degradation of consumer brand loyalty, brand equity and rapidly atrophying per capita consumption. This has brought us here. The Swirl bottle is still a universally recognized icon except at Somers, NY.
Coke quickly recognized the treacherous waters it was navigating with the advent of New Coke in the early 80’s. They did an about face, ate significant public crow and set out to reinforce, not dilute their legacy.
When I get the rare opportunity to walk a store beverage aisle I am stunned at how first position and share of space has virtually been crippled.
To a great degree, in my humble opinion, consumers no longer have a palpable emotional link to the brand.
Soft Drinks are a reward purchase. People buy them because they make them feel good. It is not a nutritional product. It is not generally percieved as a necessary product. It is a discretionary purchase and largely on impulse. This is emtional branding in its purest sense.
With the advent of Bottled Waters and New Age beverages like Snapple and SoBe etc., Pepsi has taken the patrh of emulation and lost all the leadership and “non product value added innovation” that reigned supreme in the 70’s and 80’s. Arguably the heyday of the marketing wizardry of Pepsi-Cola.
Now the test will be finding the “Spiritual Compass” of the brand once again.
Good Luck! Its a heartbreaker to us folks that were the point of the spear during the glorious days of The Pepsi Challenge and the repositioning of Brand Mountain Dew.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:15 pm
Wow! This post has taken on a life of its own. Thank you everyone for taking the time to comment on the blog, it’s really interesting to read all of your comments.
January 28th, 2009 at 1:16 am
It’s very interesting to read the discussion around this logo – especially R L ZAmora’s insider observations above; however, from a strictly design-related perspective, I have to say this logo just doesn’t seem to come together.
The problem, in my view, is that there doesn’t seem to be any thinking behind this logo. It doesn’t convey anything, it doesn’t stand for anything. Unless they really tried to associate Pepsi with sheer blandness. A logo should tie in with a branding strategy – which seems to lack here.
Not to mention the composition is unbalanced and the overall effect very flat. I’m not suggesting they should go the gradient+3D way, but some oomph would have been nice. And they’re going to spend BILLIONS to rebrand their entire product range with this?!
January 28th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
a follow up comment
“JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD”
these are words I live by and it encapsulates what they should have thought before they went down this path.
February 4th, 2009 at 5:45 pm
I hate the new logo. Why destroy an internationally recognizable logo and replace it with one that looks like a muffin top. Sloppy, sloppy.
February 10th, 2009 at 8:34 am
I personally don’t like it.
Before & After magazine has an interesting take on this topic: http://www.mcwade.com/DesignTalk/2009/02/does-pepsis-new-logo-work/#comments
February 10th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
I always love the armchair quarterback comments on logo designs. Some people like red, some like blue. So what is the right choice? None of us know the parameters the designers were given. In the end the public will decide. Will market share increase or decrease a year from now?
I read somewhere that anytime Pepsi did a blind taste test with Coke, they’d win.
And when the can was labelled, Coke wins! Or was that an urban myth?
I guess we all will stay tuned.
Coke or Pepsi anyone?
February 11th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I find it very interesting that everyone wants to compare the new logo with the Korean Air Logo… which looks NOTHING like it. In fact, the old pepsi logo looks more like it than the new one. And the Korean Air is just a blue and red ying and yang…
Where do you people come up with this stuff? I dont know who first compared the two logos, but you need to stop copying others and write your own stuff.
Violets last blog post..2012 – Will There Be a Doomsday?
February 12th, 2009 at 3:07 am
Reminds me of the Google Earth icon.
February 12th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Yep…I’m with you…1973 is their best work.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
I am almost afraid to say it, but I like the new logo. With the provision that it appears with the brand name as well.
The interesting thing to see is how people will react when it dose appear with the Pepsi name. It may be that people are criticizing it with out envisaging what it will look like when complete.
Logos must evolve over time to keep them modern. The secret is to only change them a little bit each time so that the public still recognize it and this new logo dose just this. It has the same round shape, colors and white stripe.
Strip out the text and name form the last version and you can see how it has evolved.
Trevor.
February 16th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
correct re the blind taste test
that is the pepsi challenge
It came out of Dallas where pepsi had a 14 share in early 70’s, yet all test data showed a preference when blind. They needed something away from pricing that would stimulate new users and trial. Pepsi HQ allowed local region to hire Tracy Locke to execute away from Pepsi heirarchy and BBD&O. Local management had made a convincing argument that letting Purchase (NY) handle it and or having the agency of record (BBD&O) execute it would result in a self fulfilling prophecy or a rubber stamp variation of current thematic.
Reult was a huge success. Coke couldnt challeng the results. Every lawsuit was won as the field methodology discipline was bullet proof.
re: the labelled can…urban myth
February 25th, 2009 at 3:14 am
awful, awful, awful….did i mention it’s AWFUL!
February 28th, 2009 at 10:47 pm
I think it’s breathtaking. Seriously. It’s so simple and clean and very modern. I love the asymmetry in the waves. They’ve basically taken the 70’s logo and given it a more flowing look. And I love the font. It’s retro but modern at the same time. Very minimalist and striking. Love it. Of course… the whole “smile” rationale is completely ridiculous… but I suspect these rationalizations are often done after the fact.
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:53 pm
1973 version is commonly refered to as the Crown II logo
March 4th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
honestly, this new logo feels like a generic “store brand” logo. flat, uninspired, and trying to be “modern, 2010,” but it missed the boat. if they had come up with this design 10 years ago, it would have been in-sync and timely, but now the wave has broke, and in a year or two when the world moves on to new stylistic ideas and interpretations in design, this will be left WAY behind. what a waste of a ton of money in both logo development, design and re-doing all their packaging, P.O.P.’s, and advertisements.
March 26th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I’m new in the internet business field. I’m skilled in the graphics side, but I need info to learn about this business. I was going through your post and got a few pointers.
May 21st, 2009 at 8:48 am
Well, I guess even a superbrand like Pepsi needs to re-invent itself from time to time. For a time I was unsure if they could better the 1998 logo. It was cool. It still is! Well, I’m still not sure how this new logo will hold up. The ’smile’ idea is clever, but was it at all necessary?
June 4th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Well, I wonder at the value in spending all this money rebranding themselves with a new logo after spending all this time building a recognition in the market… Coke would never go out and do that to its logo…
I just can’t see the worth in the new logo compared to the old one.
June 6th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I don’t actually like that I love the taste of Pepsi. I wish I wasn’t hooked on it, but I think I am.
Having said that, as a total consumer, I must say the new logo ‘works’ for me. Some part of me wants to ‘try’ the beverage that is in this new bottle just to see what retro tastes like.
I wonder if it makes sense that Pepsi is possibly so prevalent that it is actually not following the trends, but perhaps is a trend-setter itself?
When Crystal Pepsi came out nearly 20 years ago, I was totally on-board and wanted to see everything more clearly… It was the ‘dawn of a new generation’ for me and my peers, quite literally!
Perhaps youth today will feel the same way?