It is not a ground breaking statement that soft drinks such as Pepsi are not healthy: they are high in sugar and caffeine: diuretics that cause dehydration (not the thirst quencher it is made out to be.)
Pepsi commercials invite their cutomers to “taste the one that is forever young.” If you observe their recent ad campaign [here] you will notice that there are no visibly unhealthy people in sight, and everyone has the exuberance of a child. This message seems odd considering recent studies show a correlation between the regular consumption of soft drinks and smoking and inactivity.
Thankfully, the new Pepsi logo created a perfect opportunity for culture jammers to retaliate to the corporate giant’s misleading message. As Professor Strangelove states in Empire of Mind (p105,) culture jammers challenge corporate intellectual property by appropriating corporate symbols and altering their meanings. The ultimate goal is to make privately owned messages and meanings public and interpretable.
This poke at the newest Pepsi logo shows that the very symbol used to instill a feeling of youth and energy can be mildly altered to resemble an apathetic and morbidly obese man: an image much more reflective of the average heavy cola drinker.
