The Joy of Pepsi

Word on the street (and in the papers, industry pubs and blogs) is that Pepsi is getting a facelift for the start of 2009. The new logo turns the familiar white wave into a "smile", with a thicker smile representing laughter for Pepsi Max and a thinner "grin" for Diet Pepsi, and the all-caps type is gone in favor of a thin, rounded lowercase typeface. To top it all off, Mountain Dew will now be MTN Dew. How very modern.

Aside from reactions to the redesign itself (and there seem to be quite a few people on the "hate it" side of things), is this a smart strategic move? My first thought was that such a sweeping change in the midst of what many can agree are turbulent economic times would be a sure way to turn off consumers. After all, don't we usually look back to happier times and appreciate the strength of brands who have proven themselves to be enduring when things get tough? Throwing away that brand equity seems risky.

Then again, perhaps this is the perfect time to reinvent a brand identity. Lots of things are changing for consumers, so they could be more likely to take a new logo in stride (if they even notice it at all). It gives Pepsi something lighthearted to talk about in their ads, and by advertising through the economic challenges, Pepsi could come out the other end as the shiny, new, beloved-by-all-cola-drinkers brand. Well, perhaps that's a bit much to hope for, but if they can spend what AdAge estimates to be $1.2 billion on the changes, the economy might not be as bad as we thought.

(more on BBDO and Pepsi at AdAge, a look at the new bottles at Brand New)