Copyright Pepsi
Last weekend, I was in DC for a reunion right before the Inauguration. While there, I tried to spot as many of the Pepsi “HOPE” advertisements as I could. Unfortunately, my camera didn’t want to cooperate with the single digit temperatures, so I wasn’t able to snag them all. The above are just a few of the spots we saw plastered over Metro stations, buses, and billboards.
Although I think the general consensus from the various design blogs I read is that the Pepsi re-branding is a bit of a flop, I do think this campaign was great. Maybe it was just being in DC and around all of the excitement for the Big Day, but I thought seeing all of the uplifting signs added to the atmosphere. That, and I respected that they went with pinks and yellows and oranges rather than the patriotic color palette they could have. It broke up all of the American-flag-monotony around town. Check out more images/video of the campaign at this French site and read about it and the other Inaugural campaigns at Creative Review.
Maria’s Note: This post introduces a new S&D blogger, Lorraine, whose great design-sense I discovered through her own personal artsy blog. I’m very excited to have her here, and very jealous that she went to the inauguration!
By way of introduction: Lorraine grew up in Missouri, but claims Nebraska as her home state after spending half her time visiting family there while growing up. After college at Missouri State, she interned in Nuremberg, Germany for a summer and fell in love… with Nürnbergerbratwürste. She is currently working as a graphic designer and, in no particular order, enjoys: cheesecake, printmaking/letterpress, languages, badminton, watercolors, and antique doorknobs. In her “free time,” she reads a ton of books, plays around with her gocco printer, and blogs about design and DIY culture at her personal site, Lorraine Design. We are glad to have see her very first post on S&D!
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11 Responses for "Pepsi’s “Hope” Campaign on the Streets"
i also love the mix of bright colors! welcome to S&D! thanks for writing about such inauguration excitement!
Hurah for your debut, Lorraine!
I love Pepsi’s new ads. Although, I’ve been wondering, do the slogans vary by city? In Chicago, I see a lot of “Soda Pop.” In New York, do the ads simply say “Soda”?
I am curious about weird shit like this.
In Queens today I saw one that sayd POP POP POP. I was confused because I wondered if it was like dancing, or a fun noise, I didn’t even THINK that it would mean soda, as we never call it pop here.
@your#1 fan: Thanks for the welcome! It was really exciting to be there, and I only wish I could have stayed for the actual inauguration.
@Tricia/Maria: Aw, man! I haven’t seen any in KC yet…but I’m keeping my eyes open. Maria, that cracks me up that you didn’t get the pop reference because I never even heard “soda” until I went to college down south. ha!
Maria- at least *I* have heard of soda. Didn’t you have any not-from-the-east-coast friends who drank pop? I feel like this is a good topic of discussion at a freshman dining hall.
I’m not a huge fan of the ads. I think they are too bubbly, and they annoy me on my way to work in the morning (NYC), but I guess that’s just me being a Scrooge, or maybe it was just today, because my eyes were hurting this morning (I woke up with some sort of irritation on my left eye). Also, I hate soda.
I actually didn’t realize until I saw the ad in Queens that it was a national ad. I thought it was one special thing for the inauguration in DC because of the obvious connection b/t the Pepsi and Obama logos (are the messages “hope” “joy” national? or do the national ones just say things like “pop”?). I thought it was a pretty tactful way to ride the Obama-hype-train and advertise Pepsi (ie more subtle than TY making Sasha & Malia dolls which, they suggested, weren’t necessarily the girls just two dolls inspired by very pretty names. ha!).
@Angelica: Yeah, I’m not so sure that the campaign would work for every location/city. But I do think that it really came off really well in DC that weekend.
@Maria: Did I hear correctly that the First Lady is really upset about that? I’m not sure how I’d feel about it, but if I were one of the girls, I’d think it was pretty cool to have a doll of myself.
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