Every time Clif Dickens, a graphic designer in Nashville, would ask for Coca-Cola at a restaurant, the waitress would invariably ask him whether it would be alright to serve him Pepsi instead.
The experiences became a running joke amongst Clif and his friends, and it inspired him to reimagine Pepsi's logo with a new slogan that honestly portrayed the soft drink as the second choice of many of its customers:
The joke led Dickens to create Honest Slogans, a website dedicated to re-imagining how corporate logos would look if they were being honest about the goods and services they sold.
As he did with the Pepsi logo, Dickens tries to present what he calls "slices of life" that resonate with the frustrations and experiences of anyone who's felt inadequate after watching the Victoria's Secret fashion show, or been hit with big service charges when purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster.
Dickens works as a graphic designer for the hospital operator Hospital Corporation of America and has updated the blog intermittently since creating it in 2011. But after seeing the site gain popularity once he shared it on Reddit, Dickens has been updating it regularly since October."A lot of them are a bit harsh, I guess," Dickens told Business Insider this past October. "I try to make it so that even if Kmart or another company were to see it, they could kind of nod their heads in agreement. I try to keep it tasteful, but it's a little bit tongue-in-cheek."
Here's the Kmart logo Dickens referenced, as well as some of our other favorites:
Honest Slogans
Honest Slogans
Honest Slogans
Honest Slogans
Honest Slogans
You can see more of Dickens' Honest Slogans at honestslogans.com.