Pepsi-Cola was made by a man named Caleb Davis Bradham. He was an educated man and had hopes of becoming a doctor. He had to abandon his hopes of becoming a doctor due to a family crisis. Once he was back home, in North Carolina, he opened his own pharmacy and this is the place Pepsi-Cola was created. Originally Pepsi-Cola was named “Brad’s Drink”, after Bradham, and it was made in 1893. Bradham made the drink without stimulants, it was made of sugar, water, caramel, lemon oil, nutmeg, and other natural additives. Bradham’s intentions for this drink was to be completely healthy and to aid indigestion. In 1902 Bradham purchased the name “Pepsi-Cola” from a company in New Jersey. Many believe that Bradham changed the name of Brad’s Drink to “Pepsi-Cola” due to the pepsin in the drink, but has never been pepsin in the formula.
Logo used from 1893-1898 Image adapted from: jgeorge |
The original logo was a very common handwriting for the time. The color of the logo is the same or similar to the Pepsi blue that the company uses today. During the time period that these logos was being used they had to be hand painted onto porcelain signs. The letters have serifs and it is embellished with a thin white line around the letters. The letters are all caps creating a rectangle profile.
Pepsi-Cola’s first logo was very similar to Coca-Cola’s logo; these two companies were rivals. Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola both had Logos that only consisted of text, the script handwriting was also very similar. Pepsi’s script was a bit more decorative that Coca-Cola’s logo, but both companies’ logos were red. Pepsi used this logo from 1898 to 1940. The Pepsi logo has had gone through 10 logo changes from 1898 to 2005. From 1898 to 1951 the changes in the logo was mainly in the script wordmark.
In the 1960’s the Pepsi logo had a major change that had a different look than the Coca-Cola’s logo. The log has changed from only text to an image. The shape of the logo has also changed into something that is a bit rounder and they introduced other colors; blue, white and red. These three colors are Pepsi’s colors that they use even today, even though there are some variations on the blue color. Ten years later in 19070’s Pepsi has moved on to a more minimalistic design that carries through their logo designs to this day.
Logo changes in Pepsi-Cola from 1898-2005 Image from: http://www.famouslogos.us/pepsi-logo/ |
Did you know that Pepsi had a mascot, or that Pepsi had its own video game? In 1999 Japan had created a video game for their mascot named “Pepsi Man”. The game was very popular not only in Japan, but in the West and with Arabic community. This isn’t the only way that Pepsi has use the logo or brand name in their marketing tactics. The Pepsi site has a lot of shirts for sale. The designs are from all of the logos but they are mostly from the newest Logo and the logo from 1951. They also have variations on the past logos that can be more iconic. There are slogans that bring up their competitor’s name.
The Pepsi logo has gone through many logo changes over the years. The company has also evolved with the logo changes. Pepsi is a major mark on the sank world.
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