Pepsi Tapped People's Memories for New Logo

Pepsi has introduced a new logo after discovering the designs it has been using for decades are distinctly unmemorable. PepsiCo execs say that when people were asked to draw the logo from memory, they tended to draw its red, white, and blue stripes in a circle, with the word Pepsi in the middle—but the "Pepsi" has been outside the circle since the 1990s. "We couldn’t ignore that kind of insight," PepsiCo chief design officer Mauro Porcini tells CNN. "Instead of rejecting it, we decided to embrace it." In the new design, the "Pepsi" is back in the circle, this time in black as a nod to the company's zero sugar offerings.

The current logo was introduced in 2008, and PepsiCo chief marketing officer Todd Kaplan says he's happy to bring in a more "confident" design." In the about-to-be-retired one, the word "Pepsi" is "decoupled from the globe" and "it’s this lowercase, italicized font, the blue is a little bit muted," he tells CNN. "It doesn’t exude that confidence and energy that the brand really represents." Insider reports that the change comes amid a wave of nostalgia for the '90s among Gen Zers, a trend that has also seen the return of fashions like baggy jeans. The logo and other elements of Pepsi's new "visual identity" will debut this fall in North America and around the world in 2024, the company said in a press release. (More Pepsi stories.)