ARTICLE: Pepsi Lies “Same Great Pepsi Taste, Retro Design”

By: Michael Blake, Graphic Designer

I know I’m not the only Graphic Designer that constantly looks at packaging when I’m at the grocery store. I’m either shaking my head at a poorly designed household brand as I’m throwing it in my grocery cart, OR I’m grabbing something that I don’t even know what it is but the design on the packaging makes it look good.

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So when I was going to grab some Pepsi I was a bit surprised when I found this new but old design as their label. I thought it was kind of weird, at first I thought it was Diet Pepsi or something so that was a bit confusing, but once I took a close look I realized what they were doing. I shrugged it off and threw it in with my other groceries.

It wasn’t until later, that I found out that the Pepsi Cola Corporation were in fact: LIARS!!!

You see, they say “Same Great Pepsi Taste”, but lets be honest. I can’t be the only one noticing Pepsi’s bland taste as of late. I was always a coke guy but that started feeling too acidic on my teeth so I switched to Pepsi, the new taste was refreshing and I enjoyed it at first, but lately something has seemed off, but when I took a sip of this I was over come with the sensation of refreshment from the original taste that I fell in love with.

Then I started to think what if I was the only one that thought like this, what if I am crazy!?

I started to dive down the rabbit hole and entertain the fact that maybe it was all in my head, that maybe Pepsi has taste the same all along. And maybe, their new design has just tricked my brain into believing that Pepsi is back to their original great taste.

Take a look at these pages:

http://www.psimd.com/can-packaging-really-affect-foods-beverages-taste/

http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2017/8/8/can-packaging-design-influence-the-taste-of-food-and-drink

As a Graphic Designer, I have to say I’m ashamed I’ve never thought about the design actually affecting taste. Sure I knew the importance of a product’s packaging looking good, but I never would have thought that sight could influence your taste.

After all my research I come to the conclusion that Pepsi has taste the same all along and the design played tricks on my mind, and to just sit and think about that for a second is truly amazing to me, I hope everyone takes a moment to realize how powerful art really is.

9 comments

    1. why you hatin’? this is just a piece by an artist for fun, if you think you can contribute more and would like to we would be glad to post your content, thats what we do, as long as your an artist =) cheers! and stop the hate, Everbody Loves Everybody around here

  1. I’m here because i googled “Pepsi retro design tastes better”. .. brings me back!

  2. I’m not sure about the bottled Pepsi’s but i know for sure the Pepsi in the Retro can is NOT the same great taste from the blue can. The sugar in the retro can has increased to 41 grams oppose to the 26 grams in the blue can. I NEED to find my BLUE PEPSI

  3. The “taste” difference from retro and regular comes from the increased sugar, this is because regular Pepsi doesn’t use white sugar but a glucose and the retro uses white sugar. The difference from Cam to bottle is not really there. Some people think that pop will taste like metal from a can but cans are lined with a plastic coating so that won’t happen. Enjoyed the article as I grew up with Pepsi in my house

  4. No it really does taste different because Cherry Pepsi tastes different to they do taste Bland and Cherry Pepsi has the same design as it always has. Pepsi tastes like Diet Pepsi now or something it’s disgusting and I hate it and I’m angry about it. Plus Pepsi has changed their design many times and it’s never tasted like this because of the design

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