Sprite Gets All Sublymonal on Your Ass
by Nate Voss, (18 comments)
This is freaking me out. On purpose. I think its safe to say this was specifically designed to freak me out. I suspect it will freak you out, too. Let’s get up to speed.
First, hit sublymonal.com. If you can decode them, watch the tv spots. Peep the new logo (Steve Gordon-ites take note: “Too simple?”).
Sprite’s off the deep end here, but its not necessarily a bad thing. Like the BK King spots, this is a pretty isolated campaign, focusing on a very distinct audience. I’ve always been rather curious about Sprite’s Obey Your Thirst campaign. “Be individual. Be yourself. Do your own thing. Make sure that you drink Sprite to represent that, just like everybody else.” Its interesting now that “Obey Your Thirst” is transforming into an “Obey Sprite” campaign. At least they’re cutting out the BS. Honesty in advertising is a rare thing.
This new logo, though, bothers me. I’ve seen it in college, and again while teaching. I think every design student at one time or another has either designed, comp’ed, or at least thumbnailed that logo. And what’s with the bizarre counter-space in the center? Was being pointy really that important?
Someone please tell me what the hell shampoo-bottle directions have to do with Sprite?
Anyway, Mountain Dew should be watching this campaign like a hawk. For all its intensity it manages to come off as hugely unpretentious and true to its message. So much youth-advertising comes off as either adults-talking-down-to-kids or as your-parents-trying-to-be-cool stuff. Like Pops. This is the opposite of the new Pops. I like it. But it scares the living hell out of me.
Thanks to Ryan D for the link.
Comments (18)
DC1974 said:
Two things. (Or maybe three.)
That new campaign is Crispin Porter (see Mini, VW, et. al.).
They are dropping the hip-hop thing. (see Ad Age article)
That logo is hackie. But somehow that’s the new logo for the Art Directors Club of Metro Washington — chosen by the board and members — which may or may not say something about the hackiness of the local design scene around here.
Sigh.
Posted on May 30, 2006
Adrian said:
The logo isn’t that great - it looks like it is meant to be redesigned in a few months anyway. Since that is the trend (which I happen to like for products like this and Pops) I can let it slide. I wasn’t interested enough to take the time to “decode” the commercials, so it lost me there. Maybe the target audience would be more willing to invest their time, but I just wanted to see the ads. So, I would say that in terms of being viral, this is no subservient chicken. I think the sub “lymon” al concept is fantastic. I will wait until I see some commercials before I can say if they pull it off.
I do like what they are doing on the can. It is cool to see so much “raw” aluminum showing through even if the logo stinks.
Posted on May 30, 2006
Nate Voss said:
I agree that the rest of the can is pretty rad. I do like the raw aluminiun, and this looks inspired by the Sprite Slim Can in the AIGA 365:25 show by Olgivly & Mather. Thanks for the additional info, DC.
Posted on May 30, 2006
Andy said:
For the last oh, say, month and a half LOST has been airing a “fake” commerical for a corporation that exists on the show, each week they have a different website to go check out “for more information”.
That syblymonal site was released on a “fake” commercial for LOST during the weekly airing. I went to it a week or two ago, it was similar, but way more LOSTy and mysterious, no mention of sprite. The feel was the same. But there was no mention of sprite.
A few weeks ago the only mention of sprite in connection to all this was on the “fake” commercial, real small, real fast, it said it was paid for by sprite.
for other commercials I would check out any LOST blog.
Posted on May 30, 2006
Ben said:
I have seen the ads, and they did not connect to me. But, they did make a move in a positive direction with the personality change and an attempt at the redesign of the can. So we can agree that the sprite logomark thingy isn’t that great, but now I understand how that happens … and I think I can point out how and why.
Getting the Sprite account is pretty big, considering that nearly everyone will be exposed to the product within days of its release. I’ll bet the designers actually came up with some awesome ideas for the redesign—which we will never see—and that the idea before you today started off much better. The clients running these kind of projects are often so terrified of not having a powerful shelf presence that they will turn any great design into something like you see above. And I know that more than one direction was shown along with this one. Am I out of line making the humblee assumption that possibly, just possibly, this one was included to make the other directions look better? If this was the case, it was a designer/director error for even showing it to the client, because we all know they jump at the first familiar, catchy, look/design they see. Hence the comment about how every design student had drawn that “s” shape at one point or another knowing quite well that it wasn’t that special.
My point is that it is easy to rip up a new design, but not that easy to keep the clients from doing the same. So, if you ever come across an account like this, make sure to weed out anything cliché before showing the client, and stand by your design philosophies when backing up a direction you believe in. Or else, this could happen to you, too. It’s happened to me.
Posted on May 30, 2006
Doug F said:
DC,
Several of us on the ADCMW board also noticed the similarity to our new logo. Not sure we’d agree with the “hackie” comment (or are clear on exactly what that means) though…
As for the Sprite logo, doesn’t it conceptually say the blending of lemons and limes in an energetic way, with the S monogram thrown in to boot? Yes, it does feel trendy but isn’t that their market? As for the can, it’s a lot simpler than most out there and certainly will stand out on the shelves.
Posted on May 31, 2006
Simanek said:
I don’t know what y’all are bitchin’ about. Looks like a slice of lemon and a slice of lime coming together. What’s bad about it? That it’s not entirely unique? I can assure you that the Coca-Cola logo resembled much of the design that was already present in its time. Maybe the Nike logo was unique for its time, but have you ever seen an old Nike box? Not so good. Not so unique. I realize we can’t all go around congratulating each other’s designs on this blog (god knows we kiss each other’s asses enough face to face), but Sprite is doing well enough here. There are more important problems out there, like figuring out how to comprehend a Pizza Hut dinner menu. We should commend Sprite for stepping outside the ‘safe’ realm even if it’s only a few eighths of an inch.
Posted on May 31, 2006
'::michael nielsen::' said:
I saw one of the comm spots the =sex= other day. I think these are great. It caught my eye, in that =sex= it was different than any commercial airing around it. =sex= The message is kind of cheesy i think: sublymonal…yeah…not so much. But the video effects are a pleasant surprise to =sex= anything i’ve seen lately. does anyone know who =sex= directed it? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was michal gondry or =sex= someone like that.
Posted on May 31, 2006
Arthur said:
At the beginning of the Sprite/Sumo ad, towards the bottom in small letters it reads: DVR-Ready
If you play the commercial back in slow motion, towards the end there is a few frames of a chameleon on a branch. On the chameleon, it reads; CODE:BENTLEY
The campaign could have gone a bit further and added a few more jems in the spot. Maybe verbage or codes in the forest as well.
Posted on June 1, 2006
Krishna said:
I was on the site and i saw the word bently and when you type it in the submit button you get a quick sound file. Sprite has gone the route of kfc, by installing sumLYMONal ads for tivo/dvr users to pass the hype around. Not a bad idea since many people dont watch commercials anymore
Posted on June 11, 2006
me said:
In the commercial in the part with like a mannequins head at the bottom it says Code:whatthe? type it in for a video of the word lymon exploding, actualyl dont its stupid
Posted on June 12, 2006
Is said:
Yeah I have dvr and puts all these little codes and then like I dont know if any of yall have since Fight Club where they put in clips. So if you put your dvr on pause and play 1/15 forward you see all these codes and creep stuff.
Posted on June 21, 2006
kat said:
Does anyone else feel nauseous after watching/listening to sublymonal.com for about 30 seconds? I mean literally nauseous?
Posted on June 21, 2006
John Foster said:
You would not believe what is presented before you get to this - literally hundreds of options. I can’t say anymore but part of the focus of the re-design was to have an iconic “lymon” which is a symbol that Sprite “owns” globally in the lemon-lime marketplace.
I can’t say more than this either but it is safe to assume work started on this years before Doug did the adcmw revised logo.
Anytime you see something new on the shelf it is important to know that the packaging tested at an 80 to 20 positive response (or better) over the existing packaging as well and nothing is left to chance on re-designs.
New products are a different animal but the same care is taken…
Posted on June 22, 2006
Adrian said:
Not everyone likes the Sprite campaign, I guess.
Posted on July 6, 2006
Lingo said:
I actually made a very similar logo for my own personal site about a month before Sprite kicked off it’s new look. I knew it was a basic design, which is what I was going for. I wanted something simple, yet representative of some of my personal philosophies. I went with a yin-yang split in two, providing an “s” shape, standing for my name (steve) and my site (sybariticgfx.com, where you can see the logo).
Posted on July 8, 2006
ass sex said:
Hi Adrian I think all this not so badly, and it is necessary to continue to move in this direction!!!
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