If you have yet to do so, take a minute to look through the highlights of the 27-page design brief explaining the thought and design process that brought you the new Pepsi logo.
You’ve probably seen the logo everywhere — tops of taxis, subway stops, billboards — and wondered if it was inspired by the Obama “O.” Would that it were so benign.
The design brief currently making the rounds of the Web, suggests that, if done right, the new Pepsi logo will likely lead to The Rapture that Evangelicals promise is coming. It also illustrates the extreme disconnect between the marketing world and the real world.
The presentation, by the Arnell Group (also responsible for the botched design of the Tropicana orange juice carton) contains visual representations of and comparisons with the following: the golden ratio, the Mona Lisa, the Parthenon, the Gutenberg Bible, the earth and its magnetic fields, and the solar system/universe. None of these things have anything to do with soda.
In a modest moment, the authors titled the presentation/pitch “BREATHTAKING”.
Every page of this document is more ridiculous than the last ending with a pseudo-scientific explanation of how Pepsi’s new branding identity will manifest it’s own gravitational pull. But the craziest thing is that this pitch worked! Pepsi bought it — reportedly for several hundred million dollars — and now we have “the emoticon of a new generation.”
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.