Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Which came first, Democracy or Pepsi Autocracy?

















What is it about American consumable products (and by consumable products I refer to soft drinks as well as presidential campaigns) that makes them so obssessed with Red,White and Blue?

On the left, Obama's "hope circle", on the left, Pepsi's new summer look.

After millions upon millions of dollars spent on market research, probably for both parties, I guess they both opted for the American flag, in circular form. Obama calling his parody of the Pepsi logo "hope circle" says alot about what the actual source of American security, prosperity, and general popularity is really coming from. Cheers.

2 comments:

Ms. Missive said...

uh... well, it's smart to market things as "red, white, and blue" because those are our national colors. And if there's one way to convince Americans to buy shit, it's to make them feel even more patriotic than they already feel.

And Obama is a very smart man to market his logo as something only slightly different from the Pepsi logo which has simply become a part of the American subconscious.

Aaron R said...

I would disagree, Egydiva...I don't think it is a parody of the Pepsi logo except insofar that it is circular and uses the same (very common and popular) colors. There is a lot more symbolism in the Obama logo...in addition to using the more recognizable red and white stripes of the flag, they form what appears to be a pathway (to the future!). The center of the O can be seen as a rising sun (and is animated as such in many of his TV ads) of a "new day" after 8 years of bush.

Finally, the simplicity of the logo as a small circle allows for an endless number of things to be added to it: names, states, etc, as well as allowing for it to be put on everything from t-shirts to lapel pins and stickers. Try fitting "MCCAIN PALIN" onto a button. It's branding, yo! And darned clever branding, too...everything about the campaign is uniform, including its use of fonts. Really quite impressive.