Mountain Dew is bringing the "mountain" back for the first time in 15 years, with a complete packaging design overhaul meant to lean into the brand's roots.
Since the last major design makeover in 2009, the "mountain" has been abbreviated on bottles and cans as "mtn," featuring a sharp, angular font. The new design unveiled on Wednesday features rustic mountain graphics in addition to spelling out the name, as a nod to when the PepsiCo-owned soft drink was invented as a mixer in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains.
Some of the other details found in the news design include the verbiage "Est. 1948" tucked into the "W" in reference to the date the drink was founded, a leaf to dot the "I" in the word mountain, and green and yellow rays emanating from the logo to represent the soda's citrus flavor.
The packaging update comes as PepsiCo has seen waning demand in North America, amid competition from other leading brands such as Dr. Pepper—which is owned by Coca-Cola and eclipsed Pepsi in popularity for the first time ever this year—and smaller brands like Olipop that are experiencing a growing fanbase. As such, Mountain Dew saw sales plummet 7 percent in the first half of 2024 alone.
Mauro Porcini, senior vice president and chief design officer at PepsiCo, who also led the redesign, told CNN that spelling out the word mountain was a "direct link to the origins of the brand, which is the mountains and the outdoors." He noted that the softer angles of the new design are intended to feel "modernized and projected to feel the three-dimensionality" of the name.
"In the previous design, we were not very clear in communicating the refreshment cues. It was more about the energy of the sharp angles exploding on the can," Porcini explained, as the drink has long-since been marketed as an energy drink due to its high sugar and caffeine content. However, the new look is designed to symbolize a "different kind of energy that’s coming from the outdoors."
Whether the new packaging helps revitalize the Mountain Dew brand remains to be seen. Consumers can expect to see the new packaging hit shelves next May.
