The New Coke (Identity)
While watching the commercials during the opening ceremonies of the Torino Olympics I had an entirely different experience than watching the Super Bowl commercials. Sure there were some repeats of the Super Bowl ads, but there was an element in the Olympic commercials that wasn’t as evident in the Super Bowl spots. Design. If the new Super Bowl ads were “punch line” oriented, I saw more evidence of design and more specifically “graphic” design during the Olympic breaks. It only makes sense. It is a different venue and an entirely different feel. Do the opening ceremonies lend themselves better to brand building than the “look at me” Super Bowl commercials? It would seem that the answer is yes. From the look of some of these commercials is seems that there is a resurgence of graphic elements in TV ads.
A few asides: Did Apple start the trend (of graphics centered spots)? Or was it Target? Microsoft seems to be trying to gain a little creative equity in some of their new commercials. I will believe that when I see it. One new commercial that I saw tonight that was very beautiful (looked like the Lemony Snicket’s film titles), but I don’t even remember the product. It was beautiful but had very little connection to the company. A missed opportunity.
What really caught my eye tonight was the new Coca-Cola Company commercial and accompanying logo and identity. Coca-Cola has become a true master of creating intoxicatingly beautiful commercials and products. How well does their new branding effort compare?
Tonight was my first experience with the new Coca-Cola Company commercial and accompanying logo and identity. This was brand building at its finest. We designers complain how the large branding companies are using gradients and transparencies as a crutch. The Coca-Cola company does the opposite. I will be interested to see who was responsible for this rebranding effort. Or, is this an entirely new brand? Of course they aren’t going to mess with much of the Coca-Cola soft drink brand (besides the new slightly simplified bottle icon), but nothing is keeping them from capitalizing on the Coca-Cola equity to strengthen their multitude of other beverages. Hence the “Make Every Drop Count” campaign/tagline and new identity for “The Coca-Cola Company”. I consider myself to be fairly aware of parent brands and the various brands underneath that umbrella, but it was pretty fascinating to see them all collected in one single area. Did anyone realize they were still making Tab? My favorite part of the new website is the ability to click on the different categories (i.e. Energy Drinks, Soft Drinks, Juice …) and see the appropriate drinks realign and the others disappear.
A couple screen captures from the flash intro.
Without the aid of a press release I will just have to go off of the website and the visuals to try to figure out the strategy behind this brand leveraging. With attacks on the harms that caffeinated cola drinks can cause, this effort works at making Coca-Cola appear a health conscious corporation. I would paraphrase it like this . . . “Look, we also sell juice, water and other healthy things.” They talk about the benefits of some of their less healthy products. “Yes, coffee and soda are two ways to help you stay hydrated.” A direct quote. While using the saturation of the Coca-Cola name to promote the other brands, they are using their healthy beverages to improve their dark cola image.
With the introduction of a new logo, I can’t help but to discuss the formal elements. Do the new “droplets” and color scheme work with the old script type? To me they seem a little bit awkward together, but for the most part I think it is an interesting and successful combination. They obviously wouldn’t want to go away from the Coca-Cola script, but they still need this brand to be different than the soft drink. I commend them for the flat graphic quality of the droplets. The commercials incorporated the droplets wonderfully. As far as comparisons go, does anyone else see similarities with Duffy’s Bahamas identity? The bright varied colors on roundish shapes seem a little too similar to me. I’m not saying that they copied the Bahamas logo, it is just a little too similar. The text is even gray. Of course maybe I am just thinking of that because of all our recent Duffy coverage (1,2).
I am hoping that the flat graphic style of this new identity catches on instead of the gradients and transparencies of Interbrand and FutureBrand. Sprint and now Coca-Cola show us all that animation is just as, or more effective with glorious flat color.
February 11th, 2006 at 5:49 am
My main criticism: that new identity looks awful. The late 19th century hand script is world famous for the Coca-Cola brand, and it should stand on its own.
The overall rebranding concept is a worthy one from a business perspective. Getting the stylistic representation thereof needs some work.
The Coca-Cola lettering has its roots in the kind of novelty sign-writing that harkens back to the old drugstore soda fountains. Praise be to Coke for not revamping their look like Pepsi did and forsaking that memorable flowing brushed letterform. (Remember those “vintage” Pepsi-Cola signs?)
But, when they add “The” and “Company” in letters of the same size in a single line? It looks like crap. The sign artist that created the Coca-Cola wordmark all those years ago would have never lettered “The” and “Company” like that because it destroys the flashiness of the “Coca-Cola” lettering.
And, the “C” in the word “Company” makes absolutely no sense. It looks like the other words were typeset with one of those crappy, free “Koka-Cola” fonts with no regard for the hand-brushed flair that defines the original mark.
I mean, look at the bounce and rythm that the Coca-Cola wordmark has by itself, and then isolate the other two words. They look just awful; flat and uninspired. At the least, this designer should have reproduced the overhead swash of the “Cola” “C” to leverage the space over the x-height of the dull “ompany” letters.
NOW, on to the droplets. Well, if the “The” and “Company” were set in a different, sans font, smaller and above left and below right, or something to that effect, then the droplets would fit much better. The hierarchy of information would then proceed as desired:
1. Coca-Cola (because it’s universally established in its present form)
2. Droplets (oh, something’s different ABOUT the Coca-Cola company)
3. The…Company (right, this new identity is representing Coca-Cola – THE COMPANY – as a whole)
I’d leave the “every drop” tagline as something to
be added away from the first three nested elements, so the viewer isn’t trying to make sense of FOUR pieces of information all at once. It’s never a good idea to take a paragraph to say a sentence in logo design.
Overall, a complete reworking of every element besides the original Coca-Cola is in order. Even the “TM” is rammed up in there, making the spacing between elements look like the designer wasn’t sure if he should try and overlap them or leave desirable negative space. Just look at the sillhouette the mark leaves. Not Pleasing.
I’d give this logo, and that designer, about three months. More graphic designers really should pick up those old Speedball manuals and practice good lettering, not just trusting a keyboard and a font.
February 11th, 2006 at 5:56 am
Oh, and that direct quote about healthy Coke products. Aren’t coffee and soda diuretic?
“Help you stay hydrated” indeed. By making you so thirsty that you actually drink water for a change.
I hate false advertising.
February 11th, 2006 at 9:11 am
Hi,
Correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the introduction of the drops part of a campaign rather than a redesign of the logotype?
You have this: The Coca-Cola Company, and then there’s this:
Make every drop count
That doesn’t take away letterheads points in his criticism, but I think we’re looking at how the campaign is intruding on the wordmark rather than a redesign.
Ah, there’s also this: Coca Cola Enterprises. Beautiful website.
February 11th, 2006 at 9:19 am
Actually, the logo of the (I suppose) Coca-Cola initiative The Beverage Institue for Health & Fitness is more interesting
To me it looks like the flag of an Arab country. One can hardly discern the Cingular-man lookalike inside the flag.
February 11th, 2006 at 10:23 am
I saw those ads last night, as well. I don’t remember the cool animated one’s purpose either. As for Coca-Cola’s logo, it makes sense, even if it is a bit of a visual Frankenstein’s monster. What I find most interesting is that the new image they’re pushing: some sort of overarching magnanimous organization, responsible for our hydration and well-being (I’m stifling my laughter here). It’s such a 180 from the long-standing practice of per-product branding. I’m curious why they felt this wasn’t working anymore. It seems much more flexible, particularly since the bulk of their products are not healthy. Though if you use the technical definition of a diuretic, you can argue that coffee and cola are not.
Oh, and as for Tab, now it’s a ‘fabulous’ pink energy drink for women. How’s that for rebranding gymnastics?
February 11th, 2006 at 1:23 pm
Not that I’m a fan of Microsoft. But they may well have started the trend of graphical ads with their Windows ads in the mid-1990s that were art directed by David Carson.
February 11th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
Good eye.
The Lemony Snicket look-alike commercial, was, in fact, directed by Jamie Caliri, the same guy who did the Lemoney Snicket credits.
You can see the commercial here.
Jamie Caliri’s site
February 13th, 2006 at 8:16 am
So this seems to be an identity for a specific campaign rather than a complete rebranding of The Coca-Cola Company. Either way, it is a strong push to change the image of the Coca-Cola brand. From that perspective it does put a slightly different light on the mark. Letterhead’s comments about using the Coca-Cola lettering on “the” and “company” are right on the mark, but probably unrealistic to change at this point. It does take away from the unique quality of the original Coca-Cola lettering.
Pieratt, That is right. It was for United Airlines. Thank you for the link to the commercial. For some reason, I am just getting the audio. Here is a link to some thumbnail size screen captures if you didn’t catch the commercial. Not being able to see the entire commercial, I am still wondering what it was about, and how it relates to United.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:34 am
Bennett,
I really love the ad for United because it was so unusual to use an animated style to represent air travel. I saw the commercial as a depiction of a father on business travel having to fight corporate and business battles and then returning home to his son with a present (the toy dragon).
I would think it might resonate with anyone who has had to travel for business and be away from what’s truly important to them: their family. It meshes nicley with Untied’s print campaign which is all illustration-based. In the commercial, they even have a snippet of the music from some of their earlier campaigns.
Now, will it make me choose United? I’m not sure, but I think it helps to set them apart in the cutthroat world of air travel.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:31 am
It’s awful! The mix of the typefaces makes me sick. Coca cola shouldnt need to do this. Whats wrong today?
I am currently fake rebranding Polaroid for my BA Graphics work at Uni. NEED and WANT feedback to learn. Please.
http://rebrandingpolaroid.blogspot.com/
February 13th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Doug, I look forward to seeing the United commercial again. Hopefully I would have made the connection on a second viewing without someone explaining it to me.
This might be an instance that the designer needs to know the media placement budget before they decide on a concept and execution. If United is going to saturate the market with this ad, then I think it can probably be successful. If they aren’t going to run it very often then I think a good amount of people aren’t going to connect the concept with the product. Regardless, it is a beautiful spot, and I hope other firms and corporations create such animated/graphic intense commercials.
February 14th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
for me — it’s Boring. and not so… Professional.
simply: Bad.
February 14th, 2006 at 7:20 pm
Interesting site…(found you thru colbycosh.com)
fwiw: the United commercial appears to be an evolution of their “rhapsody” campaign (also an animated business travel theme), which I’ve noticed most often in the morning cable news shows. I tend to agree that by itself this commercial doesn’t make the connection with the company, but perhaps its the first of a new series.
the existing series can be seen here:
http://www.unitedrhapsody.com/unitedrhapsody_commercial.htm
btw: I had the same problem viewing the commercial with Quicktime 6 – but after upgrading to Quicktime 7 had no problem.
February 15th, 2006 at 2:37 am
and if You are still interested — look at this:
http://www.degradable.net/
similar, n’est pas?
February 20th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
I love the United animated commercials and maintain that they have the classiest ads on television. The dragon spot to me seems like a logical progression from their previous spots, adding some depth and light.
Jamie Caliri, the animator who created this new ad apparently was also the creator of the Lemony Snicket film titles: http://a56.g.akamai.net/7/56/7207/247c0c9752cf5a/www.united.com/ual/asset/ext_MakingofDragon.mov
March 27th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
is it possible to get a link to view the coca-cola, “enjoy every drop of life” commercial?
thank you very much
KYLE G
April 11th, 2006 at 3:30 pm
I use 1 can of coke in my washing machine to help remove oly stains.