Pepsi Globe

The current Pepsi logo (2008–) with the "smiling" Pepsi Globe and the name stylized in all lowercase.

The Pepsi Globe is the icon and logo for Pepsi, called as such because of the swirling "red, white, & blue" design in a sphere-like shape. It is considered one of the world's most recognizable corporate trademarks.

The Pepsi Globe originated in the 1940s as a logo and icon for Pepsi. The colors of the Pepsi Globe are red, white and blue. This is one of the most recognizable logos not only in the United States, but also around the world. The Pepsi Globe has undergone several changes throughout its inception in the 1940s with the most recent pivot taking place in 2009. This change was the most intense in terms of the amount of money and time that went into the branding, marketing, and visual culture involved in the underlying message for the logo. The packaging has also changed a number of times throughout the years in order to better represent the current Pepsi Globe logo at the time. The geometry involved with the shape of the logo and the shape of the packaging for the bottle are crucial for the marketing aspect of the Pepsi Globe. The subliminal advertising involved with the Pepsi Globe logo is also extensive. The different logos and packaging designs have been intended to represent the human body, rediscovery of the Vitruvian principles and their publication, Chinese art of placement and spatial arrangement and many other representations that may not seem clear or obvious from just a glance at a Pepsi Bottle. The most famous visual representation is the Pepsi Globe logo’s representation of The Earth. The swirling horizontal stripe running through the center of the globe provides a visual representation of the earth’s constant movement around its own axis and around the sun. The stripe also represents a naturally occurring electric generator in fluid motion generating and sustaining the magnetic field of the Earth. This marketing has resulted in an extremely recognizable logo and an aid to a profitable venture.

History

The Pepsi Globe has its origins in the 1940s, when the United States was in World War II. To show support of the war, Pepsi unveiled a new bottle cap that featured the Pepsi script surrounded by swirling red and blue colors on a white background. Since Pepsi, at the time, was recognizable with its script logo in the same manner as its main rival, Coca-Cola, the cap logo was simply meant as a show of U.S. patriotism as opposed to a marketing scheme.

The cap logo, however, quickly caught on, and by the end of the war in 1945 became Pepsi's primary logo. With Pepsi gaining ground on Coke in the 1950s, the logo became so recognizable that by the time the Pepsi logo was redesigned in 1962, the swirling "red, white, & blue" bottle cap that would eventually evolve into the Pepsi Globe would remain while the script was retired in favor of a more-modern "Pepsi" typeface.

The Pepsi logo used from 1971 to 1987. In 1987, the front was modified slightly to a more rounded version which was used until 1991. The pre-1987 version was revived in December 2009 for the second marketing of Pepsi Throwback which is still used today.

The logo was updated again in 1971, when the typeface was made smaller as to fit in the white section of the Pepsi Globe. Meanwhile, the bottle cap itself was dropped and the Pepsi Globe was "boxed in", with a red bar coming in from the left and a light-blue bar coming in from the right. A vertical variation of this would also have the red bar coming in from the bottom and the light-blue bar either coming in from the top or would be omitted altogether.^[1]

In 1991, the logo was updated again, and for the first time in the half-century existence of the Pepsi Globe, no typeface of any kind would be in the white section of the Pepsi Globe on a regular Pepsi product. Instead, the red bar would be lengthened slightly (the light-blue bar was dropped altogether) and the Pepsi script was moved on top of the Pepsi Globe and red bar.

The Pepsi logo used from 2003 to 2008. Initially, the "Pepsi" script was written across the top of the globe. In 2007 when the packaging was again redesigned, the script was moved below the globe. This logo was used on Pepsi Wild Cherry until 2010 and on Pepsi One until 2012. It was used in countries outside the US until 2010.

In 1998,^[2] the red bar was dropped altogether as Pepsi adopted blue packaging (replacing white), while enlarging the Pepsi Globe and making it three-dimensional. This was the first official use of the logo as the "Pepsi Globe". The design was refined in late-2004/early-2005 when the typeface was updated and the Pepsi Globe became more realistic-looking. This version of the logo essentially remained the same in 2007 when Pepsi redesigned the packaging once more to show different backgrounds on each can, though the color remained blue.

After Pepsi got their current logo in late 2008/early 2009, cans started to have a background color (font color for Diet version) based on the type of version. Caffeine Free Pepsi reverted to its gold background, cherry consists of red on top while blue on bottom, and the light blue Diet Pepsi returned to silver. But the regular Pepsi introduced in 1898 continues to acquire the blue background.^[3]

Until the 2008 redesign, the Pepsi Globe resembled the Taegeuk symbol widely used in South Korea.

The production and manufacturing process of Pepsi Cola began June 16, 1903. Around this time is when Caleb Bradham, the founder of the company scribbled the design which went on to become extremely famous and is one of the most recognizable logos still today.^[4] It has since gone under many innovations. These innovations may seem minor to everyday consumers, however there has been a great deal of time, effort and money contributed to the branding of the Pepsi logo since its inception.^[5]

The first noticeable changes didn’t come until the 1940s and 1950s when red and blue colors replaced the original scribbled design, and the shape was also slightly altered. This is when the branding process really began. In 1962, the word “Cola” was removed from the logo leaving just “Pepsi”. The Pepsi logo underwent an extreme branding treatment in 2008 and 2009 when the New York company, Arnell Group was compensated about $1,000,000 to work on the “New Pepsi Globe”.

"New" Pepsi Globe

In October 2008, Pepsi announced it would be redesigning its logo and re-branding many of its products by early 2009. Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Pepsi Max now use all lower-case fonts for name brands, Mountain Dew has been renamed "Mtn Dew," and Diet Pepsi Max has been re-branded as Pepsi Max, because the original 1993 version is no longer available in the United States. The new imagery has started to be used. The new lower-case font used on Pepsi's products are reminiscent of the font used in Diet Pepsi's logo from the 1960s to the mid-1980s.^[6]

With the new packaging saw the Pepsi Globe get its biggest redesign since 1991 when the "Pepsi" wording was removed from the white area of the logo. The white area became a series of "smiles", with the central white band arcing at different angles depending on the product until mid-2010. Regular Pepsi has a medium-sized "smile", while Diet Pepsi had a small "grin". Pepsi Max's variant was the most different, using a large "laugh" and also used black in the bottom third of the globe as opposed to the more standard royal blue. In July 2010, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, and all other Pepsi variants (except Pepsi ONE) began using the regular "smile" logo as it was redesigned to match the global branding. Pepsi Wild Cherry continued to use 2003 Pepsi design until late March 2010.

The new Pepsi design was unveiled in Canada in 2009. It was then released in other countries outside the US in 2010 such as France and the UK, meaning the 2003 design was phased out completely. In the UK, the current "smile" logo features the globe in the center, and the "Pepsi" text below it, as opposed to the tilted text in the US.

As of 2014, the only Pepsi product not using the redesigned Pepsi Globe is Pepsi Throwback. Throwback deliberately uses retro 1973 logo on the packaging due to the drink using an older formula of Pepsi containing sugarcane instead of high-fructose corn syrup that is more commonly found in soft drinks today. Pepsi ONE previously used the 2005 logo until late 2012, when it adopted the current smile logo to keep in line with Pepsi's current branding.

Pepsi hired a branding agency to design their new logo, and they provided Pepsi with a 27-page report describing what the logo represents. The report explains the logo represents Earth's magnetic field, feng shui, Pythagoras, geodynamics, the theory of relativity and more.^[7][8][9]

The New Pepsi Globe design most notably was intended to represent a “smile” with new lowercase type. The aim of this type was to seem less formal and more inviting for anyone from any background, or age to enjoy.^[10] The globe was shifted slightly counter clockwise to signify its movement and growth in looking forward to the future. This shift in design was also used to represent motion, to signify the earth’s constant motion and Pepsi’s philosophy of always moving forward into the future. The old design was upright which didn’t signify this forward thinking, and futuristic idea.^[11]

The "Golden Ratio"

Pepsi used the idea of the “golden ratio” when designing the New Pepsi Globe. The golden ratio takes place when the ratio of two quantities, equals their sum to the two of the larger quantities. To put this more simply, a+b is to a as a is to b.^[12] This golden ratio has been observed many times throughout famous pieces of artwork and architecture throughout history. The Arnell Group applied these geometric rules to Pepsi’s circular globe shape to create “The Pepsi Ratio”.

Color Palette

The color palette used by the Arnell group was also strategically used for each type of Pepsi. Each color used is associated with a psychic and emotional value that every Pepsi consumer should theoretically feel when purchasing the specific type of Pepsi product. The original Pepsi is primarily a dark royal blue color which represent the idea of “cool” in today’s society. Pepsi Max is a lighter blue used to represent a “cool and fresh” look. The Caffeine Free Pepsi is a yellowish gold color which represent balance and energy. The Diet Pepsi is a grey silver color and represents “cool, rich, and fresh”. The Caffeine Free Diet Pepsi is a white color and, similar to Diet Pepsi represents “cool, light, and fresh”.^[13]

Cost

The true cost of the New Pepsi Globe logo is difficult to quantify. The initial cost of $1,000,000 to the Arnell group for their marketing services is common knowledge and well known. What is difficult to quantify is the even greater substantial cost of replacing the old logo on trucks, vending machines, stadium signs, billboards, point-of-sale materials and other places that displayed the old Pepsi Globe Logo.^[14] One expert estimated that this cost could easily reach several hundred million dollars. The estimated time to remake this icon took about 5 months. The CEO of Pepsi, Indra Nooyi called for a “quantam leap” forward in reconstructing the soft-drink business and Pepsi being recognized as a cultural leader.^[15] As a result of the rebranding, Pepsi needed to find ways to cut cost in the next few years. Pepsi laid off many workers primarily in the Frito-Lay division and significantly spent less on Commercial Television advertising in 2010 and 2011. In these years Coca-Cola spent roughly 8% of sales on Commercial Television advertising while Pepsi spent just 3%. In 2012 Pepsi spent between an estimated $400 million to $500 million on advertising spending to compensate for their recovery years from their rebranding process of the Globe.^[16]

Criticism

Critics from other advertising agencies outside of The Arnell Group spoke up about the efforts put forth by Pepsi and The Arnell Group. Charles Rosen, founding partner of New York advertising agency said “It goes way beyond reasonable. … It’s preposterous and extreme, and layered with nonsense. But I understand the reason they went as far as they did with it”. Others like Rosen criticized the mass amount of subliminal advertising involved with the Pepsi Globe and questioned the effectiveness of the vast amount of research and development that was required for the logo.^[17]

Diet Pepsi

Diet Pepsi was using 1960s-style script with light-blue waves below the script on a white background from the 1970s to 1980s.

When the product was reformulated with NutraSweet in 1984, Diet Pepsi received a jagged, multi-layered version of the Pepsi Globe. With the "Diet Pepsi" typeface positioned above the globe, it marked the first time no text was in the white section of the Pepsi Globe on any Pepsi product. The text being absent from the Pepsi Globe would carry over with regular Pepsi in 1991.

Diet Pepsi has used the Pepsi Globe since, though it became more standardized in 1991, along with Pepsi's other products.

References

External links

• Pepsi Official Website