Pepsico to release graphic content

The release of Pepsi’s new logo, the latest since 1987, sees the soft drink product hit shelves a little flat. Consumers are now presented with a patchwork of visual merchandise featuring logos with warped variations.

When Markritique heard that the reason for Pepsico’s rebranding was to create something a little more “playful” we presumed this meant that their designer was let loose on a Magna Doodle.

However Pepsi's VP Frank Cooper explains "We felt like, as we move out of this traditional mass marketing and mass distribution era into today's culture, there's an opportunity to bring humanity back, both in terms of the design but also in the way we engage consumers."

We’re not so sure they’re succeeding at bringing humanity back, but “in terms of design” they certainly appear to be bringing human error back.

The warped shapes within the logo variations have since been rationalised as “smile” in the middle of the Pepsi cola circle, a “grin” in the middle of the Diet Pepsi circle, and a “laugh” within Pepsi Max’s logo.

Anticipated to cost billions for brand development and its subsequent launch, we hope that the “smile”, “grin” and “laugh” branding cuts it with the 3,300 employees receiving their own cuts from the company as a result of recent and forecast profit drops.

RE/MAX – A sad estate of affairs

The blurred line between sales and marketing is a particular favourite of Markritique. Time and time again we see many a “Sales and Marketing Manager” fudge their way across that line, only to end up smudging their way across the line, or making a damn mess of it.

Whilst real estate may seem like an easy target, we assure you that we have held off the cheap shots and have instead waited until we can bring you this “cheep” shot.

Joe Raschilla from RE/MAX demonstrates that “spacious” is not only an overly used adjective for the industry, but one that can also be used to describe the brains of its representatives. His recent listing of a “SO CHEEP” Yokine townhouse allows us to show you why sales persons should not be charged with the production of marketing material.

Kudos to Joe though, as he also puts his hand up and admits guilt by supplying his name, principal place of business, mobile phone number and photograph alongside the blunder in his property listing. Thanks also to realestate.com.au for their “Click to Contact Agent” function which allows us to get in touch with Joe and let him know about the literacy short courses that are running in his area.

Perhaps we are being too harsh on Joe, and he really does know his ads from his elbow. If Markritique sees “Shabby Cheep” as a new interior design buzzword in Vogue Living, we ourselves will take out a classified proclaiming “Wow!”

Tiffany & Co. For diamonds that litter

Markritique was very excited when we heard that Tiffany & Co. was coming to Perth. Apart from the obvious, we were looking forward to a sophisticated, world-class marketing exercise to go with the sophisticated, world-class brand name and image. Instead we got hot chocolate in paper cups. PAPER CUPS. Adding insult to serious marketing injury, the hot chocolate ran out (and there is nothing as sad as seeing people grab for empty paper cups simply because they are blue, and carry the name Tiffany).

Even if there had been enough hot chocolate, I just cannot imagine that Tiffany & Co. Marketing Vice-President Caroline Naggiar would think it was a good idea to have every rubbish bin for 100m in every direction overflowing with Tiffany branding. This was a diamond-set 24 carat gold clanger which should have reverberated all the way back to quaintly-named Parsippany, the New Jersey suburb where Tiffany & Co. has its head office.

And whoever came up with the paper cups idea should have their jewels (family and otherwise) cut off – or out, as the case may be.

Criminal Sentences: Cosmo goes cannibal on Nigella’s ass

We had given a great deal of thought in regards to whom would be the recipient of our first Criminal Sentence. Crimes against grammar are on the increase and despite constant reports on research statistics revealing the demise in standards of Australian literacy, offenders are still out there committing acts against language.

The first accused to come under the hammer – Cosmopolitan. An article featuring on the Cosmopolitan website, part of the ninemsn media conglomerate, has committed a treacherous act against sentence structure. Imagine my delight to see the article Dinner for six? No problem: The party tricks we all need to master. Imagine my horror though, when my focus shifted from linguine to linguistics.

The subheading of the first section within the article tells the reader to “Serve up snacks like Nigella Lawson”! In this particular instance the copywriter really didn’t put enough thought into the qualifier within the sentence. A sentence advising us to “Serve up snacks” really would have been sufficient – no qualifier required. Instead, the relative clause that has been written, “like Nigella Lawson”, is most inappropriate within the sentence structure as it refers back to the noun it modifies, the actual “snacks” themselves.

The inference to serve Nigella Lawson up as a snack at a dinner party is one this Cosmo journo didn’t quite think through. Besides, I would hardly call Nigella a “snack” – roasting her on a spit would constitute a banquet, and easily serve more than 6.