Cavalcade of Awesome

I was surfing around some of my favorite soda websites several months ago and I saw that Pepsi was planning a “change up” with its logo and labels.  Soda companies usually do this every few years to “freshen up” their image.  It’s fairly common and many times you hardly notice the change until years later when you compare the designs side-by-side. This obviously interested me so I waited for graphical proof that this was going to happen. The pictures finally showed up several weeks ago but I’ve been busy with AWESOME-tober-fest so now I can finally bring you the goods on Pepsi’s new image.

Now, the picture to the left of “The Hoff” dry humping the top of a Pepsi bottle is NOT a part of the new branding.  Hasselhoff as the new face of Pepsi would be like the Fisher Space Pen, strawberry flavored Cheetos or Jessica Biel’s body; awesome beyond human comprehension.  Words couldn’t begin to describe the jaw dropping bad ass that would be unleashed on the unsuspecting soda drinking public.  However, it’s only happening in Europe because, for some reason, America doesn’t embrace Mr. Knight anymore like they do abroad.  But I think he’s making a mini-comeback with America’s Got Talent and recent roles in movies like Click, Anaconda III and the new Knight Rider tv show.

But, enough about DH.  I could ramble on about “His Hoffness” for four or five blog articles and not begin to scratch the surface of his gleaming kick-assitude (yes, I said kick-assitude.  WHAT.  UP.).  Instead let’s get back to talking about Pepsi’s new logo design.  The current logo is the red and blue globe seen below.

As noted before, Pepsi has altered their logo many times over the years. Here’s a really cool chronological evolution of the Pepsi logo from the Laughing Lion Design ad blog.

My favorite is the 1973 design.  The new glode design will slightly alter the white stripe seen in the 1991 and 1998 globes into what Pepsi describes as a “smile”. I also found this at Laughing Lion Design.

I like it, it’s cute. The idea is that the smile would change based on the soda. The one above is on regular Pepsi. Diet Pepsi will have a smaller “smile” and Diet Pepsi Max would have a larger “smile”. Here are some of the bottle designs illustrating the changing “smile” designs (from the Brand New blog).

You can also get a glimpse of the simpler design graphics Pepsi is shooting for on it’s cans/bottles. Here’s a bigger view of those bottles also from Brand New.

The cans would have a very similar design. Here’s a pic of the regular Pepsi along with the new design for Sierra Mist.

The Sierra Mist can is cool. It looks like the cover of a Stephen King novel.  I like these minimalist/modernist designs Pepsi is going for.  It’s similar to what Coke did to many of it’s own logos last year (from The Consumerist).

They removed some of the flourishes in the design making it more simple with only a few colors. Although I’m nostalgic about some of the older designs, I’m really liking the new designs. However, I seem to be in the minority because all of the advertising and graphic design blogs are bemoaning the changes.

I’m like, whatever dude. They are cool and eye catching. Good job, Pepsi.

Man, Winn-Dixie had its employee appreciation day today. There were all of these games we competed in; tug-of-war and an obstacle course. My friend Debi filmed some of my stuff, of course, so I’ll have to tell you guys all about. Maybe later this week or next. Whenever she can get the vids onto YouTube and email me some pics.

Also, I’m a bachelor this week as Steph is gone visiting her mother in Alabama. I’m taking advantage by playing some NCAA Football on Playstation and renting movies she’d never watch. I watched Baby Mama last night with Tina Fey and it was really funny. Next up I got Speed Racer (looks visually exciting), Forbidden Kingdom (with Jackie Chan and Jet Li), Never Back Down (The OC meets Karate Kid) and Jack Black in Kung Fu Panda (actually, Steph would watch this). I’ll finish it off in the theaters with Kevin Smith’s new movie Zach and Miri Make a Porno on Saturday. But tonight, I’ll probably start with Speed Racer. I’ll let you know how my Bachelor Film Fest goes this week.

Have a good rest of the week everyone.

This entry was posted on November 12, 2008 at 5:04 pm and is filed under advertising, Coca Cola, Pepsi, pop culture, soda with tags advertising, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, soda, sodapalooza. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.