Old Pepsi double-dot logo coaster, on sale for $11.99 on Vintage Depot Direct

An interesting thing happened last October, and even though it’s kind of old news already, I keep hearing about it. And every time I see that new Pepsi logo, I think to myself “something’s wrong with this weird shape”. On the other hand, as Chris Glass puts it very eloquently:

The more I thought about how I felt about the new identity, the more ridiculous I felt about having any regard or feelings at all. It’s soda. Headlines declare a financial meltdown threatens the entire planet and here I am considering the choice of thin san-serif.

Yet, as quoted by UnderConsideration from Ad Adge, the rebranding will cost PepsiCo some $1.2 billion over three years (for a bunch of drinks brands, not just Pepsi), as they plan to revamp “every aspect of the brand proposition for our key [carbonated soft drink] brands. How they look, how they’re packaged, how they will be merchandised on the shelves, and how they connect with consumers.” Ad Age estimates that the Arnell Group charged $1M for the Pepsi logo redesign alone.

And so were born the Pepsi “smile”, the Diet Pepsi “grin”, and the Pepsi Max “laugh” — and of course the obligatory “lower case sans-serif à la iPod” wordmark — that got designers all around the web talking and debating.

For the launch, Pepsi sent three packages to 25 “digital and social media influencers”: The first contained five cans with logo designs from 1898 to 1950, the second contained five cans with logo designs from 1962 to 1998, and the third contained six newly designed can full of actual Pepsi.

That last box also contained a DVD with a video highlighting Pepsi’s 110 year history all the way to this new logo.

To me, it doesn’t matter much that I find the idea cute and the execution extremely poor and awkward. It is not important for two reasons:

First, because Pepsi keeps playing the “we’re number 2, and we try hard to be cool” card, instead of hiring the right people and rebrand themselves as a whole, completely, to finally become a brand as “classic” as Coca Cola, rather than “an alternative” to it.

Second, because everyone have been talking about it, and the logo change was primarily an excuse to make people say and write “Pepsi” all the time for a while, since they wouldn’t otherwise. It seems Pepsi (and Coke too, for that matter) make minor changes their logo/brand/image/packaging on a fairly regular basis probably just for that reason. And it works. Better than a traditional ad campaign.

Everyone is talking about it so much, some even see a conspiration theory in these clumsy bézier curves, but judging from the comments, the humor is lost on some (too early to joke about Obama yet?), so I won’t go into it (even though it’s obvious that Pepsi’s creative department must have been disappointed that the slogan “Yes we can” was already taken… It’s a joke, people!)

And for those of you who can’t get enough of these, and want to see even more Pepsi Cola cans from the past, have a look at this impressive collection. More Pepsi Cola bottles too perhaps? (They also have Coca Cola cans and bottles, obviously.)

And for when you had enough of that whole logo design rambling, Michael J. Fox being cucumber-grade cool (as always):