Pepsi Responds to Obama Logo Controversy
3 Minute Ad Age: Jan. 29, 2009
Produced by
Hoag Levins
Published: January 29, 2009

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| Pepsi VP-Brands Frank Cooper denied that Pepsi's new logo was similar to the Obama campaign's.
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NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Has Pepsi aligned its marketing graphics and rhetoric too closely with that of President Obama's election campaign? That issue has been ricocheting around the blogosphere of late and Pepsi brands chief Frank Cooper officially addressed it as part of the company's pre-Super Bowl press conference this week. At one point, Mr. Cooper almost seemed to suggest that the Obama campaign may have found the inspiration for its own logo in Pepsi's marketing images -- rather than visa-versa.
What appears to be a direct rip-off is the application of these two red, white and blue circular logos. Using the Pepsi logo as the "O" in HOPE and YES YOU CAN are obviously derivative from the Obama campaign.
To deny it, Pepsi and Arnell must think the American public are a bunch of fools. It is one thing to tap into the culture zeitgeist and quite another to copy some else's concept and execution of creative work.
Hoot Communications