A Barack logo rip-off or "breathtaking design strategy?"

Ask students to design a logo, and they'll each have one for you in about three minutes. Ask them to first write a strategy for it, and count the blank stares.

It's hard to settle the cognitive dissonance between the classroom's "done in three minutes!" with the real-world's "the client would like a 27-page PDF explaining why we should like and use the logo you designed for us."

But that, apparently, is what Arnell did for Pepsi in a document called, "Breathtaking design strategy." According to Advertising Age, this may have cost Pepsi over $1 million for the document alone.

Yipes - and this is for the logo that has been accused of being a Barack Obama "Change we can believe in" knock-off.

The document, which is all over the Internet, and is mocked on Gawker, explains the merits of the new Pepsi logo by chronicling over 5,000 years of design ("The origin and evolution of intellectual property"), "Gravitational pull," and "Applying universal laws to establish a blueprint for the brand."

Einstein shows up along the way, as does da Vinci, and even the Mona Lisa herself. I'll read the rest tonight; I'm looking forward to finding out whether Jesus, Darwin, and John Lennon show up as well.

The best thing about this is that it makes our Public Relations strategy assignment look like a walk in the park. Wait 'til next year!