It’s been a busy week in the world of branding news, starting with this past Sunday, when Kamala Harris’s marketing team got to work designing a whole new campaign identity. In other news, Tupperware got a sneaky rebrand, MSCHF parodied the Girl Scouts, and Deadpool & Wolverine went all-in on ads. Here are the branding stories we’re reading this week:
The news: The biggest story of the week is undoubtedly Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, which includes plenty of fascinating branding news. After President Joe Biden announced that he would drop out of the 2024 election on Sunday, Harris’s team has been working around the clock to create campaign materials including new logos, social media assets, print collateral, and even a full-fledged video ad.
Big picture: Rebrands are typically arduous, detailed projects, often requiring months of preparation to execute. But in quite possibly one of the quickest rebrands of all time, Harris went from running mate to presidential candidate in just one day—with a new campaign logo and website to prove it. Her all-female design team mocked up six new logo options in three hours, landing on a “Harris for President” wordmark that uses the same core font and color palette as the former Biden-Harris campaign materials. And today, the campaign launched its first-ever video ad, set to Beyonce’s “Freedom.”
Why it matters: Harris’s team has masterfully deployed a two-pronged branding strategy: appealing to young voters through her unique personal memeability while also capitalizing on the familiarity of the Biden administration’s existing visual assets. Political figures have previously been panned for trying to seem “hip with the youth” by jumping onto social media trends, but, so far, Harris’s meme-referencing tactics have struck a favorable chord of self-awareness. Meanwhile, her team’s reuse of fonts and colors from the Biden-Harris campaign helps give her brand a safe, grounded vibe in an era of political chaos.
The news: Tupperware, the iconic food-storage brand that came to represent an entire category, appears to have stealthily rolled out a rebrand over the past several months. The new look, designed by Landor, includes a high-octane dose of color and a stylized “T” that mimics the moment a Tupperware lid is pulled back.
Big picture: Life in plastic does not seem to be so fantastic for Tupperware at the moment. In fact, the aforementioned fanfare-free rebrand comes as the company grapples with major financial struggles. Last month, Tupperware shut down its only facility in the U.S., laying off 148 employees in the process. And in a May securities filing, the company noted “substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern for at least one year.” Landor announced its branding work for Tupperware on Instagram this week, only to delete the post several days later.
Why it matters: While it’s unclear exactly when Tupperware started trying out a new look, it seems likely that the rebrand was part of an effort to help distinguish the company from competitors. Tupperware’s declining financial state could be a cautionary tale against one brand standing for a whole category: While it might seem beneficial to have such a widely used brand name, the word “Tupperware” representing any plastic container might actually subsume Tupperware’s individual brand recognition.
The news: MSCHF, the company best known for its big red boots, just released an ultra-limited line of gear parodying Girl Scout cookies called MSCHF Scout Cookies. Only three iterations of the collection were available, and each came with 528 boxes of cookies, a sash, a sales guide, uniforms, and more. The whole launch is a statement on how commercialization is sold as a central value to American children: “Sales is a highly individualistic profession that leans into a one-against-the-world mentality, treating all contacts as exploitable marks,” the website reads. “Sales, in other words, fits perfectly with the American ethos.”
Big picture: This isn’t the first time that MSCHF has used a product launch as a platform on which to issue meta commentary about the state of capitalism. In the past, it released “Eat the Rich” popsicles designed to look like famous billionaires, created an ATM that issued validation instead of cash, and a jacket that purposefully infringed on the trademarks of major companies like Subway and Tesla.
Why it matters: The great (albeit likely intentional) hypocrisy of MSCHF’s capitalism criticism is that its limited-edition product drops only stoke the flames of the company’s cult-like following, inducting more fans who are willing to pay big to get their hands on any of the company’s products. It seems pertinent to ask at what point this form of commentary does a full 360 back to being the problem it aims to solve.
The news: The new Deadpool & Wolverine movie debuts today, and its marketing team is making sure that no one forgets it. So far, there have been collaborations with Jack in the Box, Heineken, Tim Hortons, and Heinz.
Big picture: The food-forward marketing seems fitting, given that Deadpool and Wolverine essentially look like dressed-up ketchup and mustard bottles (hence the Heinz collab). Ryan Reynolds, who stars as Deadpool in the film, is also a pro advertiser in his own right. He’s the owner of Maximum Effort, a creative agency behind ads for Reynold’s other companies: Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, Match.com, DoorDash, and more.
Why it matters: Marvel Studios has had a rough go of it over the past few years, as repetitive movie plots and a seemingly never-ending outpouring of new shows has garnered serious brand fatigue. Some fans are hoping that Deadpool & Wolverine might be just the shake-up the studio needs to get out of its current funk.