Credit: The Coca-Cola Company
The Coca-Cola Company’s recent brand refresh has sparked widespread debate for its perceived similarities to cigarette packaging, ‘indistinguishable’ packaging designs between drink flavours, and more. We take a deeper dive into the ongoing conversation and ask the question: was this approach a success or a mistake?
Generally speaking, The Coca-Cola Company has received widespread praise for ‘staying true to its heritage’ with a ‘retro’ look and feel, from returning to its vintage-style Spencerian script to reviving the ‘Arden Square’ and ‘Dynamic Ribbon’ motifs first introduced in 1969.
At a time when other brands are accused of oversimplifying their visual branding to the point that it reads as ‘bland’ and ‘corporate’, Coca-Cola is commended for its detailed approach to the refresh.
Creative strategist Oren John describes the move as “less of a rebrand and more of an amplification”, while Pony founder Stef Ivanov observes that Coca-Cola “changed almost nothing. Same logo. Same red. Same ribbon.”
“I can’t stop thinking about why I love it so much,” he continues. “I think it’s because everything around us became disposable. And here’s a hundred-year-old brand saying no – not enough. We need more of us. We’re keeping it. That takes way more confidence than any redesign.”
Yet Orbit founder David Pullara believes that marketing experts might be overemphasizing the impact of the font update, asserting that “the differences are so subtle as to be invisible to the average consumer.”
“Consumers don’t care that the font is maybe a tiny bit thicker in some places,” he adds.
Controversial redesign
As we previously reported, consumers have taken issue with the redesigned packaging for the Coca-Cola Zero Sugar product variant. While it was previously distributed in black cans or plastic bottles with black labels, the brand has now applied its classic red-and-white palette across several of its mainline drinks.
The Coca-Cola Company emphasizes that its zero-sugar beverage will still be distinguished through larger on-pack text, a black ‘Dynamic Ribbon’ design on cans and multipacks, and a black cap on plastic and glass bottles – yet consumers with diabetes and allergies to artificial sweeteners have voiced their frustrations that the packaging is harder to differentiate at first glance.
While Ryan Selvy, content creator and host of The File New Show, praises the redesign overall, he also believes that the universal red packaging “becomes an accessibility issue really fast.”
“If I’m looking into a cooler, I’m going to be annoyed having to differentiate between regular Coke and the black ‘swoosh’ or the black cap, or quickly being able to tell that these boxes are different in the grocery aisle,” he says.
Yet he goes on to say that the backlash is “mostly an American thing”, as international product variants such as Coca-Cola Light and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar Zero Caffeine will maintain their old designs.
Digital creator Yanis Xavier also describes the packaging for Coca-Cola Original Taste and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar as “extremely similar”.
“I know this might look beautiful in a brand presentation, but inside crowded grocery aisles or a cooler, it’s going to be hard telling them apart if people need to recognize the difference quickly,” he comments.
David Pullara agrees that “the grocery aisles will be a sea of red, because every Coke product now looks the same.”
“The problem is that these are two different products, and they shouldn’t look like identical twins,” he continues. “In my view, the very best Coke Zero can was the original, black can: zero sugar and zero confusion.”
Not everyone is so critical. The Brand Inquirer describes the larger Zero Sugar label and black accents as “clearer visual distinctions”, asserting that the “flavoured variants intertwine illustrations with the Spencerian Script logo and colour-coded labels for easier recognition.”
“The product family looks much tighter as a result,” says Michael D Brandt, CEO and co-founder of Ketone-IQ.
Agency directory and media hub DesignRush also asserts that “iconic brands generate instant criticism because people feel ownership over them”, and Packaging Europe observed a similar trend following rumours that Capri-Sun would replace its iconic pouches with bottles.
The Sustainable Packaging Coalition has previously stated that “consumers are just people, and people experience grief. That grief shows up when things change, like when brands evolve, products are reformulated, or packaging gets redesigned.”
Some have even argued that Coca-Cola has secondary motives in harmonizing its product packaging. Ketone-IQ’s Michael D Brandt suggests that “everyone knows sugar isn’t great for you, so Coke is leaning into the hedonism and enjoyment you get from cracking a cold one.”
David Kyle Choe, founder and advisor at brand strategy consultancy Dept of Anthropology, even speculates that “we’re starting to see, in real time, a sub-brand take over the main one.”
“With the rise of GLP-1s and a focus on wellness, I actually think this makes a lot of sense,” he adds.
‘Fridge cigarettes’
Despite approving of the redesign overall, Yanis Xavier says that the combined white Spencerian script and red background is the “one part where I think [Coca-Cola] went a little bit too far” – stating that “my mind instantly jumped to Marlboro.”
The comparison isn’t new. Fortune notes that consumers have observed the similarities and jokingly referred to Coca-Cola drinks as ‘crispy ciggies’ or ‘fridge cigarettes’ since the summer of 2025 – and suggests that, in some cases, internet culture can reshape a brand campaign through jokes and memes.
Such was the case when British department store Marks & Spencer released its Lettuce, Guacamole, Bacon and Tomato (LGBT) sandwich to celebrate Pride Month. M&S was accused of ‘rainbow-washing’, or using LGBTQ+ iconography to sell a product without following through with meaningful support for marginalized communities, and the product became infamous due to widespread ridicule across social media.
“Nobody’s accusing Coke of copying a cigarette brand,” says Arvin Shafiei, problem solver at Arcade. “But enough people clocked the same association, independently, fast, for it to become the story of the launch.”
Yet the New York Times reports that design experts disagree with this assessment. Elizabeth Goodspeed, a graphic designer and adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, told the publication that “the big part of the Marlboro comparison comes down to the most simple elements, which are type and colour” – yet while the fonts are ultimately different, she acknowledges that the Coca-Cola redesign “has a very similar vocabulary with what Marlboro does.”
Ultimately, Bluetext founder Jason Siegel believes that the “bigger lesson goes beyond whether the new cans look better”, commenting: “The real story is how one of the world’s most recognizable brands is balancing masterbrand consistency, product-level clarity, and governance at a global scale.”
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