Tyrone Pardue

For those of you that read my recent post “Where’s My Orange”, you may be wondering what good blogging and Web-based consumer protest would do. Well I am pleased to report to you that Pepsi Co. has heard the consumer loud and clear! They have decided to all but trash the over $30 million investment in the re-branding of Tropicana Orange juice and bring back the familiar orange and straw image they had thrown out with the bathwater. Yes, I did say $30 million. Recession or not, that’s the cost of pulling a brand stunt like this one.

If there is anything I have learned over 25 years in this business, it’s that as a designer you must sometimes put away your ego. The mistake made here was one of tremendous egos thinking that they could re-write brand history and not have people notice. The shear ego it must have taken to spend $30 million to redesign this brand without the proper research makes the mind boggle.

It turns out consumers were very fond of their old Tropicana orange and straw and the shear mass of public protest (mostly online) has stopped them in their tracks. As reported in the New York Times this week by Stuart Elliot, consumers emailed, phoned and blogged their complaints, “Some of those commenting described the new packaging as “ugly” or “stupid,” and resembling “a generic bargain brand” or a “store brand.”

Power to the people!

When I lived in Ireland, one of my favorite brands was Tropicana orange juice. Not only did it taste good, it was a fond
reminder of my early childhood in Florida. Seeing it in the supermarket fridge on a cold and dark winter’s day in Dublin was a heart warming sight that brought back memories of summer days, palm trees, beaches and ice cold orange juice.

So when I heard through the grapevine that the famous brand was getting a packaging design overhaul, I was naturally curious about the results. Unfortunately I am a little more than just disappointed! I have no idea what the agency that was commissioned to do this could have been thinking (they shall remain anonymous here).

Where did the big juicy orange with the straw go? It was probably the most iconic part of the old package. Imagine Aunt Jemima disappearing from
the pancake box.

They even changed the logotype.That familiar curved lettering that made you think of sunny Florida, beaches, rows of orange trees, has been usurped by a sterile looking piece of lettering that looks like Tropicana went on a starvation diet!

How would you feel about the Coca-Cola script with its familiar calligraphic flourishes being abandoned for a Germanic sans-serif?

At first I thought it was just me - maybe I just didn’t ‘get it.’ But then I did a little poking around and came across these interesting reactions from consumers.

When working with an iconic brand, it is rather dangerous to throw away your most familiar visual assets. I am not privy to the market research that went into this redesign (if there was any), or to the results of the packaging redesign market sampling that was done (if any), and so can’t say whether or not the brief was evolved scientifically. But I do know that successful brand updates are evolutionary, not revolutionary. It will be interesting to see how long this brand revolution lasts!

Amidst the great depression of the 1930’s Coca Cola advertising executives scrambled to find compelling advertising images that would help to keep the brand alive during this dark time. Winter was a particularly difficult time for the company when sales went into a deep slump. Part of their solution was to widen the appeal of the Coca Cola brand from a mainly adult audience looking for some new ‘pep in their step’ (Coke was the first energy drink!) to a family orientated beverage central to good times and family memories.

In the early ‘30s, Coke launched a major poster advertising campaign, saturating pharmacies and five and dime stores with posters designed by well known artists depicting Coca Cola as central to family life. Fred Mizon painted the first of Coke’s popular Santa Claus images for a series of ads that were run in the Saturday Evening Post early in 1930. But Haddon Sundblom who was first commissioned in 1931 to paint a series of posters for the winter campaign that year painted the most memorable posters.

In the Dutch tradition that was largely adopted in America, the mythic Bishop Sinnterklaas, who delivered gifts to those in need on Sinnterklaas day in late December never wore a red suit and was a thin and somewhat stern looking character. In the 17th century British religious folklore created the character of Father Christmas also known as Santa Claus. Pictures of him that survive from that era portray him as a well nourished bearded man dressed in a long, green, fur-lined robe. He typified the spirit of good cheer at Christmas, first established by the "Ghost of Christmas Present" in Charles Dickens's “A Christmas Carol.”

Cartoonist Thomas Nast for the January 3rd 1863 edition of Harper’s Weekly magazine created the first popularized American rendition of Santa Claus. Inspired by the poem “The Night Before Chistmas” written by Clement Clarke Moore for the New York Sentinel in December of 1863, Nast depicted the first the modern Santa that we have come to recognize. He was also the first to paint the red suit, although this depiction of Santa did not catch on until Coke took ownership of it.

Coca Cola can’t be credited with inventing the ‘modern’ concept of Santa Claus, but it can get credit for one of the greatest advertising coups of modern times. Ever since the 1930’s, Cokes Christmas advertising has been built around the Sunblom style Santa that has become the standard image of him now accepted around the world today. This standardized image of a chubby, cheerful white bearded Santa in his Coca Cola branded red suit is central to good times and cheer. Santa Claus is now forever fused with the Coca Cola brand in the American consumer subconscious.

Check out some of Sundbloms posters below:

This year marked the centenary of the Ian Fleming's birth, the author of the ubiquitous James Bond stories. Penguin has revived the Bond series several times over the many years since they were originally published. But most of the designs were unremarkable.

In celebration of Ian Fleming's birthday this year, Penguin has done an outstanding job of resurrecting the magic with these new designs that really make you want to own the whole collection! Designed by MIchael Gillete, they succeed in capturing a 'cool and sexy' sort of vibe with a touch of the sixties about them. I really love the retro type with bullet holes on The Man with the Golden Gun cover (bottom right)!

These illustrations are actually paintings, which remind me of those sixties and seventies Playboy story illustrations. Not that I ever looked at Playboy of course...


See the Full Book List Here (Click on the Bond Books Link)

Illustration by Ward Sutton for The New York Times.

This has got to be one of the most successful branding projects ever completed. For starters, imagine a black guy named Barack Husein Obama, only early 40's, Junior Senator, thinking he can slip in to the most powerful position on earth! Then think about how from a branding point of view, you would have to overcome all those negatives. If he had been a product in a supermarket, he would have stood no chance.


But the extremely disciplined brand identity, like the campaign itself was a marvel to behold. As a designer I found myself giggling like a kid when I saw the implementation of typography, color and imagery, masterfully controlled. The Obama brand, centered around the logo itself was completely in-tune with the campaign messaging. The 'O' for Obama, the rising sun, the field of red stripes from the flag, all seamed to inspire the 'hope' of a better day dawning soon in a new world called Obama-land.

The logo made me think this campaign was promising that you could just swallow a 'magic pill' called Obama and wake up the next morning and all would be fine. I wonder if the designer knew how much like a 'magic pill' this logo turned out to be? Subconsciously, people were looking for the medication, the cure from the last eight years, and this little red white and blue circular 'pill' looked perfect for swallowing!