Khadanker Rishaltullah (Shadin) May 2, 2016
Pepsi Logo History
Pepsi is not just only one of the most famous beverages in the world but it also has one
of the most recognizable logos of all time. The Blue, white and red colored circular logo is
something everyone has seen at some point in their lives.However, when Pepsi was founded in
1903 by Caleb Bradham,the logo looked completely different than how it looks today. Even the
drink’s name was Pepsi Cola. And the logo was much similar to the logo of Coca Cola where
‘Pepsi Cola’ was written by the founder himself using the font Script. Script was considered
popular during that era. In 1905, the company decided to focus more on the edge and the
thickness. The logo had a thicker stroke and a more decorative appearance . Also this time the
colon between the word Pepsi and Cola was more obvious and visual. The logo was changed
again two years later and this time the lettering was adjusted by giving the strokes of the letters
an equal stroke weight. Every letter in the logo had the equal amount of thickness. The color was
changed from red to orange and the edges were more rounded this time.
In 1941, when the logo was changed again and this time the the script typeface was
confined to the P and C and the other letters were set in a sans serif typeface was used to write
PepsiCola where there was no present of serif in the letters. Also the colon was replaced by a
squared dot. The logo was used from 1941 to 1950. In 1950 the scripted letter font was placed in
the middle of the red, white, and blue swirl which had been the bottle cap of PepsiCola since
1950s that included the slogan, “Bigger Drink, Better Taste”. The logo lasted for about eleven
years.
In 1952 Pepsicola completely rebranded themselves by removing the iconic script
letterform and evolving into san serif font and by eliminating 'Cola' and becoming just Pepsi.
After 1952, logo was changed several times by either adding, replacing or even re adjusting the
logo properties. No major change was made to the logo until 2008 when the company decided to
add a different type of curve to replace the wavy equal sign that was created the by white part of
the round logo. and changing the font of the letter from sans serif to the font that was used for
Diet Pepsi from 1975 to 1986 where the swirl of the white part was added to the lowercase ‘e’.
However, the changing of the logo became a little controversial and a lot of people started
questioning if the continuous rebranding was actually good for the business. Pepsi spent about $
1.2 billion and the logo designing process too over three years. Also a twentyseven page
document titled "Breathtaking" was created to show the thinking that went behind the new logo.
It says the consumer will be attracted to new logo so much that they will end up buying a pepsi.
The presentation also portrays the reimagined Pepsi globe logo to the Earth's magnetic fields and
the sun's radiation. A few people believed that the document was a hoax that was created so the
company could get the world's attention and get everyone talking about the logo.
From 1903 till now Pepsi had changed their logo for altogether about thirteen times. It
was because they believe in change and evolution. The face of the company needed to change as
time went on simply because the consumer changed. As the youth culture changed with time,
Pepsi evolved to be the best representation of the current time. The actual youth movement in the
1960 was anticipated by the Pepsi Generation. The youth always looks for something new and
Pepsi remains as the ‘new thing’ simply by rebranding their company. From 2000 to 2003, when
sales of Pepsi dropped by 12 percent. PepsiCo change its advertising strategy. Pepsi changed its
campaign from "The Joy of Pepsi" to "Pepsi. It's the Cola" in 2003.
Bibliography
● We Are What We Sell Vol. 2 Advertising at the Center of Popular Culture
1930s1975 by Danielle Sarver Coombs and Bob Batchekir, Editors
● Logopedia: Pepsi
● PepsiCo, Inc. Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns Vol. 2 by Thomas
Riggs, Editor
● South Beach Beverage Company, Inc. International Directory of Company
Histories Ed. Jay Pederson. Vol. 73.
● Thoughts about Pepsi by Logo Design Love
● 'Breathtaking' Is One Word for Purported Arnell Pepsi Doc By Rupal Parekh.
Published on February 11, 2009.
