PepsiCo puts a "smile" on its cans, bottles

Trade publication Beverage Digest reported today that PepsiCo has decided that the red, white and blue globe design on the regular Pepsi -- the "smile" -- will be used on all Pepsi products around the world. That reverses a tactic hatched back in the fall of 2008, when PepsiCo executives announced that they would modify the traditional Pepsi "globe" logo to put modified designs on different Pepsi products.

Since then, the thickness and tilt of the white band in the middle of the Pepsi globe were customized for various Pepsi brands. The idea, as PepsiCo executives explained at the time, was to make regular Pepsi's globe look like a smile, make Diet Pepsi's into a "grin" and make that of Pepsi Max resemble a laugh.

Now, all Pepsi drinks will be emblazoned with the "smile." PepsiCo told Beverage Digest that unified graphics will help the company "build deeper, long-term brand equity across the Pepsi trademark."