Pepsi has a history of launching campaigns that leave people confused. As a previous commenter mentioned, do we even know what Pepsi Throwback means? Pepsi also has some sort of concert series (I think it’s a concert series) called Pepsi Smash. Though I used to hear it advertised everywhere, I was never really sure what “Pepsi Smash” meant. Still don’t. Just tried to Google it, and couldn’t find so much as a Wikipedia entry. Not good.

I think, also, that remaining consistent is very different to changing the look of your logo. The brands you mention (Nike, Apple, McDonalds) have all had make overs in recent years – the consistency is in the underlying proposition that the brand offers.

I’d predict that consumers would welcome the change up – especially as a break from the otherwise omnipresent, loud and aggressive branding campaign it has at the moment.

So I’d call it more strategy than confusion. Perhaps, and you make a good point, from an overall perspective it might feel like a little slicing and dicing to people. But then again, I’d doubt they’d take the time to notice.

Nice article.

I’m not familiar with the Pemberton ad, do you have a link?

Reminds me of the Pemberton ad for Coke a little while back…would love to know what piece of research prompted this one!