The "Pepsi" Administration

Have you seen this billboard? Did you do a double take as you opened up Just My Opinion during your daily routine? (You need your JMO like your morning cup of coffee, right? Like the morning paper?)

I did a double take on my way to work a few weeks ago when I first saw this advertisement. It looked just a little to similar to this:


At first I scolded myself for assuming that Pepsi's advertising department would stoop to such blatant unimaginative levels as to plagiarize the President's symbol and slogan. But then I thought, "What does Pepsi give me in which I can place my hope?" Too much sugar in my diet? Aspartame? Pepsi One?

Ok, maybe they are simply wishing the President well. Maybe they buy into his messiah-like status and they just want the world to know. If that's the case, their billboard should say something to the effect of "We're behind you President Obama!" and then at the bottom "Sponsored by Pepsi." This sentiment also would not have required changing their logo. Also, if they were simply cheerleaders for our Commander in Chief then this campaign (and logo change) would have occurred following the election on November 4th.

As a good reporter should, I did a little research and found the following:
A) Pepsi altered their logo during the Presidential election (the first mention I found of it was toward the end of October 2008 (the 24th is the earliest reference I could find), when it began to look like Obama had it in the bag)
B) People were already noting the similarity between the new logo and the Obama logo before this billboard was erected.

But, maybe I'm crazy. Are they really trying to do what I'm alledging? Look at this progression:


Not so far fetched now is it?

The only conclusion that I could come
to was that they were hoping to tap into something subconscious in the American populous and ride the wave of Obama's rapidly declining approval rating. What's that website say? "Refresh Everything?" Yeah, except the originality of your advertising campaign. Maybe you should try "Got Pepsi?"

I think the aspect of this advertising campaign that irks me most is less that they've plagiarized from the Obama's graphic designers, but more along the lines of: Seriously, what does Pepsi offer that deserves our hope? Hope is a serious term. Hope is immense. People without hope end their lives and Pepsi is going to trivialize it by sticking their logo in the middle of the word? I understand hoping in government. So many people have ignored the real hope that we have in Christ that they cling to the "next best thing." Pepsi does not fit that bill!

I have met people who have no hope. They aren't turning to Pepsi. Nor shall I. Until this advertising campaign is ended, I will not be buying any Pepsi products (including but not limited to):
Pepsi, Pepsi One, Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi
Mountain Dew, Mountain Dew Code Red, Mountain Dew Voltage
Mug Root Beer, Sierra Mist, Tropicana Twister Orange Soda
flavored and non flavored Propel and Aquafina waters
any and all SoBe drinks
Amp Energy Drink, No Fear Energy Drink
Brisk Tea and Lipton Tea, all variations
all Dole Juice Drinks Tropicana juice drinks
Bottled Starbucks Frappuccino, Canned Starbucks Iced Coffee
Gatorade and Gatorade G

After all is said and done, I couldn't help but wonder what Pepsi would have done if McCain had won...