Ovaltine, which originated in Switzerland as Ovomaltine (meaning “egg and malt”), has a variety of logos around the world. In the United States, Ovaltine was best known for its Rich Chocolate flavor, with an All-American script logo on a blue oval.

The old logo represented years of commercials where children asked for more Rich Chocolate Ovaltine, which tastes great and is great for you.  The can stood out on shelves with big, bold, high contrast letters, in a friendly script.

The new logo sports a cleaner, simpler, more European style. It seems they are going for a more upscale look, while also trying to illustrate the drink mix’s great taste.  The flavor has been moved to the bottom of the container, and there is no mention of tasting great. The can is also labeled as “Rich Chocolate Mix” instead of “Rich Chocolate” so consumers don’t expect premade chocolate milk.

Overall, it looks weak, pretentious, and blends in with every other chocolate mix on the shelves. I noticed Nestle’s name on the can, so maybe Nestle is trying to market Nesquik for children and Ovaltine for sophisticated adults.

As a nostalgic adult who also enjoys interesting packaging, I greatly miss the old cans. Fortunately, most stores still carry the old style, so it will be a while before I only have boring cans of chocolatety powder.

Which Rich Chocolate Ovaltine would you rather put in your shopping cart?

In order to boost the public image of a company known for selling beef jerky infused with mechanically separated chicken parts and mystery flavors, Slim Jim refreshed their logo. The new logo definitely brings more thoughts of “spicy” and “modern” to mind, compared to the old logo which looks like it had been on the shelf since 1989.

However, I can’t help but think they used a checklist of design cliches from the year 1999.

1. Make everything 3D
2. Rotate it to make it edgy (because people love tilting their heads to read)
3. Have the letters burst out of their container, because that is exciting and shows motion
4. Give text a jagged, metallic appearance, which represents the future

The snack itself is rounded, so the metalization of the logo looks like a design-by-committee idea to modernize the logo without giving it much thought.

They could have updated the logo by using less saturated colors and ditching the shield. Imagine the original slim jim logo with dark reddish brown letters (like a juicy steak). That’s it. Cool, huh?

What do you think of the new logo? How would you have changed it?