There has been a lot of chatter lately about the new Pepsi logo.  I touched on it in my recent post about Tropicana’s rebranding.

So, which came first, the new Pepsi or Obama logo?

Responding to claims that Pepsi mimicked the Obama logo for its good vibes, in a recent Ad Age article, Peter Arnell, architect of Pepsi’s new logo said, “When I design things, I design in a pure vacuum. When I did the Pepsi logo, I told Pepsi that I wanted to go to Asia, to China and Japan, for a month and tuck myself away and just design it and study it and create it,” he said. “There was a lot of research, a lot of consumer data points … and dialogue that I had with the folks at Pepsi, consumers and retailers. We knew what we were doing.”

I kinda believe him because let’s face it, the Obama logo looks a lot like the yin-yang Pepsi logo from decades ago.  I don’t believe that anyone can be in a complete vacuum–that Obama guy is popular, just a little.  And I don’t believe that no one recognized similarities between the logos.  After all, Pepsi has an entire campaign based around Obama!  Even will .i.am is in it.

And if you haven’t sat in on a logo presentation meeting where someone said “That one looks like the xxx logo” then you are either lying, or you woke up today excited about your first day of working in advertising/marketing.

Some logo ripoffs are in fact intentional.  Take American Idol and advertising partner Ford.  This is as accidental as a Paula Abdul pill pop.

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So, here you go.  Pepsi vs. Obama.  Who ya got?

And what about South Korea’s flag, adopted in 1883!!!!