The second time I saw the New Pepsi logo I thought it WAS the Obama symbol. On New Year's Day, as I recovered from the previous night's celebration, I was watching Fox and Friends. On the set, Clayton and the pretty blond one that fills in for Gretchen occasionally, played with a few left over balloons from the night before. The balloons were huge and had words written on them. Kinda like this...
One said "Joy" and one said "hope". But they didn't say Joy and Hope they said J-obamasymbol-l and H-obamasymbol-pe. I thought only in NYC do they drop Obama balloons. Thus I spent the next few moments cursing at the television. Then I thought, why are they dropping Obama balloons, don't they know the campaign's over, He Won. At this point I yelled to my husband, "They found something to spend the extra campaign money on...guess they had to use the money by the end of 2008." I found myself very amusing. I was less amused a few days later, however,after watching one of their new hippie dippie commercials featuring just those words, spelled just that way. I realized it was The New Pepsi logo on those Balloons. I later read online were part of Pepsi's Ode to Joy 09campaign. I choose to think Pepsi was just trying to cheer everybody up, it's been a rough couple of months...I continued to purchase Diet Pepsi as usual.
I've come under fire recently from conservative friends who know about my addiction to Diet Pepsi. "How do you look into your refrigerator, and just see All of them?" One asked about my 24 pack a week habit. I defended Pepsi, saying changing a logo is not something you do lightly and it was probably in design long before Obama created the creepiest symbol in this new century. And I would say, "it's not really that much different than the old logo." But secretly I wondered... Is Pepsi trying to 'draft' off of Obama's popularity with the most sot after demographic in all of America 18-34 year olds? Or is Pepsi running a PR campaign for Barack Obama?
But today, I came across something via a friend on twitter, that well, let's just say I think I just bought my last Diet Pepsi.
Watch:
Isn't it just the Awesomest! Obama's going to "Refresh the Nation"! OMG! Does anyone remember Pepsi asking us to write President Bush after 9/11 and Thank him for lifting this Nation out of the ashes? But this guy hasn't even taken office yet and they have rebranded their Primary product lines with HIS symbol. This is too much. Even for me. (Is there a 12 step program for Diet Pepsi?) I have a few left in the fridge, so I'm sitting here drinking one now, I've put it in a glass, so as to not have to look directly into the symbol.
Let me just say, I think it's brilliant marketing by Pepsi and it might even work for them. Obama followers will buy anything with his face on it, so why not "The Symbol". Lord knows there are enough of them to shift market share. So it's probably a good move for Pepsi. I just can't support it. So alas, I must stop the denial and put down the Diet Pepsi. Some are supporting a boycott, according to The Advocate, the American Family Association was already boycotting Pepsi for donations to a gay cause. Me, I'm not much for mass boycotting. I'm way too much of a Fan of Individual Choice to participate in mass anything. I'm a firm believer in voting with your money on a daily basis, It's the American Way. Everybody gets to make a Choice and this member of the old "New Generation" will be choosing to drink Water until Pepsi changes the logo or I run out of Willpower.
