Pepsi's Logo Finally Looks Normal Again

Pepsi, the cola brand that has been at "war" with its main market rival for decades and has since come to poke fun at its place in popular culture ("Is Pepsi OK?"), is giving its logo another makeover.

If you were around and brand-aware in the 2000s, you'll recall an earthshaking shift in the soda sphere when Pepsi revealed an update to its iconic "globe" logo. Prior versions dating back to 1973 had seen the red and white circle (originally a bottle cap) with a white wave oriented horizontally through the middle.

But in 2008, the brand made waves of another kind by revealing a new logo that featured a diagonally-oriented "smile" through the red and blue ball and dropping the Pepsi "wordmark" into lowercase letters. Before that, the most significant change had been separating the word Pepsi from the circle, which had been the case since 1991.

But yesterday, Pepsi unveiled another iteration of its logo and, as the saying goes, everything old is new again.

The updated Pepsi globe once again features the white wave, the wordmark back in the middle of the circle, and a retro-inspired, all-caps typeface (which the brand says reflects its "unapologetic mindset"). The blue has been updated to an "electric" hue, per the brand, and the black lettering is a throwback to the logo used throughout the 1960s.

Speaking of throwbacks, these nods to nostalgia should look familiar even to modern Pepsi drinkers, as past iterations of the globe logo have returned on the packaging for the Pepsi Throwback line of products, which are made with cane sugar. However, new additions to marketing and packaging materials will include a linear can silhouette featured behind the globe and as an electric blue "pulse" emanating from the logo.

"At PepsiCo, we design our brands to tell a compelling and holistic story. Pepsi is a shining example of a brand that has consistently reinvented itself over 125 years to remain a part of pop culture and a part of people's lives," Mauro Porcini, SVP & Chief Design Officer of PepsiCo, said in the announcement. "We designed the new brand identity to connect future generations with our brand's heritage, marrying distinction from our history with contemporary elements to signal our bold vision for what's to come."

The new logo rolls out in North America this fall and globally in 2024.