The Tropicana Nipple

PepsiCo have done it again!  First, they re-designed the Pepsi bottle to look like a wrinkled penis and now they have recalled the redesigned Tropicana orange juice carton because the cap — in the shape of half an orange — actually looks like a human nipple.

We confess the released Tropicana nipple isn’t as obnoxious as the original spec art, but sometimes a plastic screw cap is intentionally more than just a plastic screw cap — hole and all… 

It seems the Tropicana re-design was supposed to suggest not just an orange, but also the juice inside the orange, and so — the experience of “squeezing” the screw cap was to imitate the squeezing of fresh orange juice. 

Or, perhaps, that squeezing also invoked a little naughty nipple play as well.

PepsiCo is quickly returning the original, beloved, Tropicana cartons to the shelves of your local grocer. 

Notice the humdrum orange screw cap is back, along with the semiotically delightful “straw in an orange” meme that so many of us grew up loving.

Not every logo needs to be redesigned.

Not every soda bottle needs to suggest male anatomy.

Not every screw cap needs to invoke the pulp of the human breast.

PepsiCo, please retire the Freudians from ruining the innocent goodness with the naughty bits that bring you an undeserved sexual embarrassment.