When Advertising Agencies Go Wild

Pepsi has a new logo, but rather than symbolize the brand’s legacy of youth, the redesign represents the absurdities of the advertising industry.

Pepsi reportedly paid New York City ad agency one million dollars to develop a new brand identity last year, according to financial estimates in the New York Post. As anyone within eye-shot of Pepsi’s multi-million dollar advertising blitz now knows, the new super logo is almost identical to the old one, except the white stripe now resembles a smile.

A 27-page document, titled “BREATHTAKING Design Strategy” has leaked onto the web which outlines the marketers’ rationale for the new logo. Pepsi’s design is supposedly based on 5,000 years of “design philosophy,” including Feng Shui, the Mona Lisa, and the Möbius strip. There are even sections pontificating on the gravitational and magnetic pull of Pepsi.

According to the report in the New York Post, the person who leaked the document was a freelancer at one of Pepsi’s ad agencies who said “It really hammers in the stereotype of advertising in general, and the complete idiocy that goes into marketing.”

The new logo, of course, is intended to jolt sales of the cola. PepsiCo has hit financial troubles recently, citing a 10 percent decline in 2008 third-quarter net income to justify laying off 3,300 workers and shutting down six plants worldwide. Many are now outraged that the company could be wasting so much money on outrageous branding exercises.