New Pepsi Logo: Good, But A Failure

Pepsi recently rebranded slightly (okay, maybe it's fairly major), changing a logo which has been around since what is essentially the beginning of time (Pepsi was trademarked in 1903).



Now, I understand fully the need for a company to change, evolve, rebrand, etc. It is not uncommon for newer companies to shed logos, typefaces, and what have you every few years. It's a natural part of the business.

I can appreciate the new Pepsi logo, however. Shedding the symmetry of the old wavy line gives the it a much needed energy and dynamism, something the old coke "swoosh" thing has had, also since the dawn of time. I also applaud the flat blue background, and the round, lowercase type. Looking at this can is like sitting in a quiet, darkened room with a bottle of valium. Especially compared to this nausea-inducing crime against all that is good and holy:



But unfortunately, this doesn't solve the underlying problem. Pepsi just spent several million dollars on superbowl advertising, north of $1 million on the logo redesign itself, and estimated several hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing the old logo with the new one (think about it: trucks, billboards, packaging, vending machines - it's a lot of stuff to rebrand).

The problem is, pepsi is 106 years old, coke is even older, being trademarked around 1888. Conceivably, my great grandparents could have had an opinion about whether they liked Coke or Pepsi better. And that's the real issue, is that people don't drink Coke over Pepsi or vice versa because of the branding, or the package, or any other nonsense. People tend to like the taste of one over the other, and once that decision is made they cannot be convinced, and take that preference to the grave. People are much more prone to switch political parties, countries, ideologies before they'd ever switch from Coke to Pepsi. I know I wouldn't.




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Addendum: It occurs to me, on further examination, that the new Pepsi logo is, in fact, different for each "version" of Pepsi:



Diet Pepsi has a smaller swoosh, and "Pepsi Max" has a more pronounced swoosh.

I feel that this differentiation somehow undermines the logo as a whole. If a logo is meant to be instantly recognizable worldwide, as an iconic image, doesn't it simply confuse the brand image to make minor changes across your product line that aren't even immediately apparent?