Quaker Face-lift or (has Quaker gone Quackers?)

   There I am, traipsing through the cereal aisle at my local super market.  All is right with the world.  I casually glance over as I pass by a box of oatmeal and continue walking.
     "Hold on a tic." I shout.  I snap my head back to the Quaker Oats box.  Something didn't seem quite right here.  I pick up the box and stare intently at the label.
      "Can I help yo-"  a voice starts to say.
      "SHUT UP!!!"  I scream.  "I'M THINKING!"  and sprint down the aisle with the box in my hands.  I hide myself among the pineapples so I can be alone to contemplate my dilemma.
I stare at the box.  It looks like this.

    "Hmm, "  I say to myself.  It looks  different.  I bought the box and took it home.  I placed it on my kitchen table and stared at it.  "What secrets do you hold?" I said with a slightly British accent.  

      Then it hit me.  He lost weight!  He lost weight?  What?  How is that even, why did they, what?

My suspicions were confirmed after doing a Google search for an old Quaker oats box and I turned up 

this article here.   It's not like they replaced him with Brad Pitt or anything.(Pictured Below) 

 But it does look like he has had some work.     

I bet you ladies out their would like to sow them oats.  Am I right?

   Even the text font seems thinner.  It's almost as if the logo itself is an actual entity and it decided to lose weight because the other logo's kept making fun of it at the beach.  I had to do some research on this (not too much).  I came up with this nifty little slow news day article that said PepsiCo. wanted their product to be associated with health and energy which I guess wasn't being represented by a jolly fat colonial man in a wig.  Instead, a slightly less fat but still jolly colonial man in a wig.
      The difference is subtle.  Changing a logo too much can sometimes cause a consumer backfire.  Do you remember "New Coke?"  Of course not!  No one does and they've spent millions to make sure it stays that way.  More recently Tropicana got rid of their famous "orange with a straw sticking out of it" logo.  However after many fans complained, passionately.  I mean with more passion than the OJ Simpson trial (A different kind of OJ).  In 2010 they brought the orange and straw back.
      What do I think about the change?  You may have already asked.  I think they did a good job with the subtlety without changing the logo.
           Heck, we could have ended up with this.

Now with 25% more Smoosh Smoosh!!!

  I am all for change.  Sometimes it's what helps keep a product fresh in our minds.  I drove by a Taco Bell sign that hadn't changed their sign in three months.  It wouldn't have bothered me except the sign said "Tr Britos ox un"  Obviously it had lost some letters.  Every frickin' day I passed this sign. I felt like walking in there to give them some helpful input.
    Employee:  Welcome to Taco bell melpew?
    Me:  CHANGE YOUR *BEEP*ING SIGN!!!
   Employee:  Huh?  Wha-"
   Me: Yes, I'll have the chalupa please.

When they finally did change their sign I was relieved.  It was to advertise some baja taco, burrito, something otherwhich.  Someone even joked "You have to try that now because they changed the sign."

You know what?  I did feel like eating there that day.  It was still horrible but that's not the point.
The point is changing a logo every now and then isn't that bad.  Will it make people associate oatmeal with being thing and healthy?  I always thought of oatmeal as sort of poor mans(of which I am a member) breakfast.  It's something that is cheap and still nutritional.  I bet they could have changed the logo to a pauper or even better yet Oliver Twist.  His fingerless gloves holding out a small bowl with those puppy dog eyes.  "Can I 'ave some more?"


Do you like oatmeal?  Does a logo really matter that much?  Would you still eat oatmeal if it had a picture of someone with diabetes?

Wilfred wouldn't lie to you.



References:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/29/quaker-oats-man_n_1389414.html
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-29/news/31256626_1_quaker-oats-new-logo-original-logo