Ode to Change

Yes ,Barack Hussein Obama is the new president of the US of A. Dawn of a new Generation. Hmm sounds like a Pepsi tag line. Oh wait Pepsi has a new logo too. Rebirth of a Drink. Thinking of rebirths- Japanese scientists have cloned dead frozen mice. Whoa...Change hear we come. Back to Obama again. The circle of life continues...

Lets see what changes are brought about by these 3 completely unrelated events. First Black(ok semi black) president of America with a Muslim sounding name. On his shoulders lie the twin burdens of the biggest economic crisis in history and the biggest war against terror. They say if we had used the $700 billion dollar crutches for greater good we could have alleviated world poverty.So even less needs to be said about $3 trillion for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Change was definitely needed from Bush. But what the bloody hell that change is going to be(Obama has never be clear about that) is any one's guess. The story will unfold itself. On a side note its funny(or not!) how many people today told me that they expected Obama to be assassinated within 3 years.

Like we said change is good. Or is it? Case in point- Pepsi's new logo or logos in plural. The Smiling Logo, the smirking(or grinning) logo and the laughing logo. All for the same brand. Is this a first? Different(slightly) logos of the same brand? Maybe some of the readers can clarify. Anyways when profits are down, a $1.2 billion spent on new logo which has not been radically changed since the 50's(I mean the circle of red and blue with a centre wave) doesn't seem the smartest of all moves. A basic definition of a logo is to uniquely visually identify a brand,company or product. Three logos for the same brand seems like confusing the customer to me. Emotions with logos or brands are excellent for brand identity but are you telling me a Pepsi customer identifies with the smile, The Diet Pepsi one with the grin and the Pepsi Max customer with a laugh? You must be kidding me. No pun intended. Taking different logos to line extensions is definitely a stretch. Have Pepsi's marketing team all done all that could be done before embarking on this great mission ? Or was someone's office joke taken seriously by top management? Let see what this change ushers, hey I'm no marketing guru. BTW did Nooyi vote Democrat , if you know what i mean?

Finally a change that sci-fi novelists have written about for years. Bringing back the dead.Literally. Japanese scientists have brought back from the dead or rather cloned a frozen mouse who has been buried 6 feet under(of ice mind you) for 16 long years. Now they are talking about bringing back the Mammoth. Jurassic Park here we come. It does sound really cool though doesn't it. What will happen next? Wait and watch - the best (or worst) is yet to come. Ode to Change!!!

Pic: Obama pic courtesy CNN.com
Pepsi logo courtesy Brand New blog