• Ad Age, Thursday, February 12, 2009 10:45 AM

"Breathtaking," a 27-page document that allegedly represents the "preposterous and extreme" thinking, in the words of one admirer, behind Arnell Group's recent revamping of Pepsi-Cola's logo, has hit the Web and "adland has been abuzz," Rupal Parekh reports.

"At its most extreme, the presentation compares the reimagined Pepsi globe logo to the Earth's magnetic fields and the sun's radiation," Parekh writes. The document observes, among other ruminations, that "emotive forces shape the gestalt of the brand identity."

Some observers suggest that the document is a hoax, or even a viral-marketing campaign set loose by Arnell Group, the Omnicom Group agency that's led by design guru Peter Arnell. Could be. Comments on the Age story are fascinating in themselves. One journalism student who was a Coke drinker before she swore off sugar water altogether says that the new logo is so compelling that she almost bought a Pepsi last night. Another wag weighs in with a parody that's certainly not what Pepsi intended. Good or bad, though, people are talking.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »