6 ms·

reminds me of the now-infamous Pepsi "Breathtaking" design document https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-021109.pdf https://www.goldennu

reminds me of the now-infamous Pepsi "Breathtaking" design document https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell-021109.pdf https://www.goldennumber.net/wp-content/uploads/pepsi-arnell...

FredPret 5y ago
I’ve never heard of this before. It’s an elaborate parody... right?
- proggy 5y ago
  It is absolutely real [1][2], and was quite the scandal at the time. If the reporting is to be believed, PepsiCo paid about $1 million for the branding strategy. All to arrive at a blob that looks like a fat person with a red shirt and blue pants separating from each other at the waistline [3]. So yes, it is a bit unreal. [1] https://adage.com/article/agency-news/breathtaking-word-purported-arnell-pepsi-doc/134552 https://adage.com/article/agency-news/breathtaking-word-purp... [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/1160304/pepsi-logo-design-brief-branding-lunacy-max https://www.fastcompany.com/1160304/pepsi-logo-design-brief-... [3] https://www.cannotunsee.net/post/730928004/pepsi https://www.cannotunsee.net/post/730928004/pepsi
  - sidpatil 5y ago
    > All to arrive at a blob that looks like a fat person with a red shirt and blue pants separating from each other at the waistline So what you're saying is that their new logo was really just their old mascot [1] who had let themselves go? [1] https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=pepsi%20man&tbs=imgo:1 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=pepsi%20man&tbs=img...
  - JetAlone 5y ago
    I still remember the first time someone pointed it out to me all those years ago... I'll skip the steps of charting out hundreds of circles for millions of dollars and just say that I interpret it as a hyperreality.
sdwr 5y ago
I love this, true modern art. My favorite bit is on page 26, illustrating the "gravitational pull of Pepsi". Is it just me, or do all the pepsi logos look like second place? I can't see them from a blank slate, but the smooth curves and contrasting colors scream #2 to me.
allenu 5y ago
Oh, I remember this. I wonder how much of it was they came up with the design quickly and realized they had a lot of time and money left, so they got to work on the justification process that we see here.
Tsiklon 5y ago
This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innovation” with the pseudograph is an utterly hilarious distillation of the madness yet to come. The deeper I read into the document the worse it got. Golden ratio, Patterns being found where there were none to begin with (“perimeter oscillations”), Pepsi Energy fields, Pepsi Universe. This reads like a pamphlet buckling under the excited and emphatic pointing of a disheveled man with a tinfoil hat on saying “SEE, SEE THE TRUTH IS ALL IN HERE!” What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained? Or is it a case of self absorbed people surrounded by “yes-men” basking in the glory of their own brilliance?
- Lammy 5y ago
  > What learning can be taken from this? That being stupidly outrageous is a great marketing strategy considering we're still all discussing a branding document from 2009. The gravitational pull of Pepsi is real! :)
  - TchoBeer 5y ago
    Holy shit, I think you're right.
  - antihipocrat 5y ago
    I doubt the C-suit bought into the gravity argument. However there is a smile like quality to the new design, as is pointed out in the design docs, and this is probably what resonated with the executives during the pitch. I also wonder about whether this document is actually the real one as presented to the company. For example am I the only one that sees the hint of a 'P' shape in the new whitespace between the red and blue colored elements? Wouldn't this have been a more convincing feature of the design to highlight than the pages about DNA, gravity and special relativity?
- munificent 5y ago
  > What learning can be taken from this? If a giant corporation offers up millions of dollars to have a design agency blow smoke up their ass, they will find an agency willing to generate as much smoke as needed to separate them from their cash.

FredPret 5y ago

I’ve never heard of this before. It’s an elaborate parody... right?

proggy 5y ago
It is absolutely real [1][2], and was quite the scandal at the time. If the reporting is to be believed, PepsiCo paid about $1 million for the branding strategy. All to arrive at a blob that looks like a fat person with a red shirt and blue pants separating from each other at the waistline [3]. So yes, it is a bit unreal. [1] https://adage.com/article/agency-news/breathtaking-word-purported-arnell-pepsi-doc/134552 https://adage.com/article/agency-news/breathtaking-word-purp... [2] https://www.fastcompany.com/1160304/pepsi-logo-design-brief-branding-lunacy-max https://www.fastcompany.com/1160304/pepsi-logo-design-brief-... [3] https://www.cannotunsee.net/post/730928004/pepsi https://www.cannotunsee.net/post/730928004/pepsi
- sidpatil 5y ago
  > All to arrive at a blob that looks like a fat person with a red shirt and blue pants separating from each other at the waistline So what you're saying is that their new logo was really just their old mascot [1] who had let themselves go? [1] https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=pepsi%20man&tbs=imgo:1 https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=pepsi%20man&tbs=img...
- JetAlone 5y ago
  I still remember the first time someone pointed it out to me all those years ago... I'll skip the steps of charting out hundreds of circles for millions of dollars and just say that I interpret it as a hyperreality.

sdwr 5y ago

I love this, true modern art. My favorite bit is on page 26, illustrating the "gravitational pull of Pepsi". Is it just me, or do all the pepsi logos look like second place? I can't see them from a blank slate, but the smooth curves and contrasting colors scream #2 to me.

allenu 5y ago

Oh, I remember this. I wonder how much of it was they came up with the design quickly and realized they had a lot of time and money left, so they got to work on the justification process that we see here.

Tsiklon 5y ago

This document is insane. It feels like everyone involved in the production of it is so utterly disconnected from reality. That first page “Trajectory of innovation” with the pseudograph is an utterly hilarious distillation of the madness yet to come. The deeper I read into the document the worse it got. Golden ratio, Patterns being found where there were none to begin with (“perimeter oscillations”), Pepsi Energy fields, Pepsi Universe. This reads like a pamphlet buckling under the excited and emphatic pointing of a disheveled man with a tinfoil hat on saying “SEE, SEE THE TRUTH IS ALL IN HERE!” What learning can be taken from this? Is it a case of the train of thought being very poorly explained? Or is it a case of self absorbed people surrounded by “yes-men” basking in the glory of their own brilliance?

Lammy 5y ago
> What learning can be taken from this? That being stupidly outrageous is a great marketing strategy considering we're still all discussing a branding document from 2009. The gravitational pull of Pepsi is real! :)
- TchoBeer 5y ago
  Holy shit, I think you're right.
- antihipocrat 5y ago
  I doubt the C-suit bought into the gravity argument. However there is a smile like quality to the new design, as is pointed out in the design docs, and this is probably what resonated with the executives during the pitch. I also wonder about whether this document is actually the real one as presented to the company. For example am I the only one that sees the hint of a 'P' shape in the new whitespace between the red and blue colored elements? Wouldn't this have been a more convincing feature of the design to highlight than the pages about DNA, gravity and special relativity?
munificent 5y ago
> What learning can be taken from this? If a giant corporation offers up millions of dollars to have a design agency blow smoke up their ass, they will find an agency willing to generate as much smoke as needed to separate them from their cash.