The mountain is returning to Mountain Dew’s emblem

After a roughly two-decade sabbatical, the term “mountain” is making a comeback on cans and bottles of “Mtn Dew.”

The PepsiCo-owned beverage is reintroducing its original title to cans and bottles along with a new logo and packaging design that do away with the truncated title and highly angular typography in favor of iconography that pays homage to its rustic origins. The new appearance will be available to consumers starting in May of next year.

The adjustments coincide with a slowdown in North American demand for PepsiCo’s beverages, particularly a notable drop in volume for Mountain Dew, which has decreased by 7% in the first half of 2024, as per data from trade publication Beverage Digest that was provided to CNN.

Duane Stanford, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest, told CNN that Mountain Dew “looks ready to shake off the adrenaline rush that has defined the brand’s marketing for almost two decades, when a key strategy was to market Dew like an energy drink to an energy drink crowd.”

Drawing on nostalgia, the new logo reinstates “mountain,” which was removed in 2009 as part of a broader rebranding of PepsiCo’s beverage line, which also included a redesign for Sierra Mist, which is no longer in production.

According to Mauro Porcini, senior vice president and chief design officer of PepsiCo, who oversaw the revamp, spelling out the word “mountain” creates a “direct link to the origins of the brand, which is the mountains and the outdoors.” Giving a nod to its founding date of 1948, when it was created as a mixer in the Tennessee Smoky Mountains, was also added to the logo.