
Pepsi's Nonsensical Logo Redesign Document: $1M for This? - Brajeshwar
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pepsis-nonsensical-logo-redesign-document-1-million-for-this/
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ZebZ
With these types of documents, it's obvious they are done after the fact for
fluff and to justify design decisions that were made by people different than
the ones who wrote the document. At worst, the weirder stuff in the document
was commissioned to be an absurdist marketing gimmick when it "leaked" to the
press and they wrote stories on it.

It's like the Apple document for their logo redesign that showed that it was
really something like 37 distinct circles placed in mathematically-relevant
positions.[1] Yeah, no.

[1] [https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/05/17/does-the-
apple...](https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2013/05/17/does-the-apple-logo-
really-adhere-to-the-golden-ratio)

~~~
jnurmine
Exactly, the document reads like some kind of numerology for graphical
designers...

The new logo itself looked like a vintage airliner logo. I kind of see the one
in my mind's eye but cannot quite place it. Googled for it but couldn't find
it.

~~~
plausibilities
This one?

[https://images.app.goo.gl/9TaZjLSfvdduab6d6](https://images.app.goo.gl/9TaZjLSfvdduab6d6)

~~~
NikkiA
More likely the old KAL logo:

[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Tailfin_...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Tailfin_korean.jpg)

~~~
jnurmine
That was the one I think!

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spectramax
It is possible to pay a lot of money for branding - it’s a huge part of
company’s image and it may be worth it. Chermayeff & Geismer, Pentagram,
Interbrand, etc. can deliver exceptional value for $$$ spent.

But man, this Pepsi logo presentation reeks of ill-informed executives
drinking the branding coolaid to fix the company image. There cannot be any
other explanation. This logo was presented to executives at Pepsi Co and was
approved by them. How did they not realize the amount of bullshit in that
presentation, it’s truly perplexing.

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gist
There are two completely separate issues here. One is the cost. No doubt the
$1m (if that was what was spent) is what this type of work costs. There could
be various phases, testing, steps, research, experts that go into coming up
with a new logo design. [1] But the story would not have any interest (in a
mainstream news site; 2009 or otherwise) without the 'dog bites man' angle in
this case 'and it cost $1m'. Leave out the $1m (or some other large number
that a common man would understand) and nobody would care.

Next are the issues highlighted. The document is apparently large so we have
no idea of the context or what else was said. While on the surface it sounds
screwy (and probably is) the outtake is clearly presented in a way to show the
most interesting angle to grab attention.

[1] I am also reminded of military contracts with the $100,000 hammer the
story then details how the same hammer would cost $5 at home depot and nothing
else as far as why the hammer is priced at $100,000 (and there are reasons I
say that as someone who has bid and worked on military contracts).

~~~
duskwuff
> Next are the issues highlighted. The document is apparently large so we have
> no idea of the context or what else was said. While on the surface it sounds
> screwy (and probably is) the outtake is clearly presented in a way to show
> the most interesting angle to grab attention.

The original briefing is only 27 pages long -- including a lot of whitespace
-- and the bits excerpted in the article are representative. It's full of
bizarre, grandiose comparisons to popular icons of art history like the Mona
Lisa, the Parthenon, and the golden ratio, or to emoji, or to pop science
concepts like "gravitational pull" and "energy fields". About a third of the
entire document is pages with ellipses and lines drawn over historical Pepsi
logos, ostensibly an analysis of the "perimeter oscillations" of those logos.
(The term "perimeter oscillations" is unique to this document, not a real
design term.) The overall impression the document gives is that the authors
must have been high as a kite while writing it.

There is exactly one sensible page in the entire document, which appears near
the end. It's a proposal for a color scheme to be used for different Pepsi
products.

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Hackbraten
Please add (2009) to the title.

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gdubs
To me, the obvious reading of this was always pretty simple: they wanted to
rip off the Obama for America branding, to capitalize on a massive youth
movement, and created this doc as a kind of “parallel reconstruction” of how
they got there.

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kakali
Relevant Lemon Demon song "Redefine your Logo" which appears to be about the
Pepsi Logo. [https://youtu.be/qImHuiYnVQ0](https://youtu.be/qImHuiYnVQ0)

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tomatotomato37
I'm still not 100% this document is really real and not just an elaborate
troll, but I think that may be my mind the idea that this remarkable piece of
surrealist art was passed off as a serious business document.

~~~
kleborp
The Pepsi Kendall Jenner ad was largely criticized for being tone-deaf. I
wouldn't put it past being a real document based on previous works of Pepsi's
marketing department.

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growlist
With nine of the pages (one third of the total 27) appearing to be mainly the
result of running a vectorise tool:

$333333/9 gives $37037 per page

$37037/30 (assuming a generous 30 clicks to assemble the page) gives $1234.56
per mouse click

Nice work if you can get it - I suspect their facial expressions on submitting
the invoice resembled one of the smiley faces on page 23.

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SoWhat2019
Super-cheap compared to Gillette's recent target consumer feel-bad ad.

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albertshin
Phil Knight (Nike) paid $35 for their first logo. Also he had just randomly
found the designer (a student at the time) while walking through an art
department hallway.

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syntaxing
Does anyone have a link to the PDF mentioned in the article? The one in the
article redirects me to a job posting site...

~~~
wodenokoto
First result on google [1]. It's been a few years since I browsed the
presentation, so I'm having a hard time deciding if this is a parody or the
actual one, but the actual one is just about as silly:

[https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-
arnell...](https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-
arnell-021109.pdf)

~~~
whenchamenia
>having a hard time deciding if this is a parody or the actual one

Thats the one.

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mistrial9
on the other side, an art school graduate was rumored to be paid much less
than $1000 for the Safeway Groceries logo, which they used in every imaginable
way for the next fifty years to build their extensive business

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unixhero
I actually think this work is genious. Although I cannot understand it.

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ohiovr
They should make their logo a blue and red potato.

