Goodbye pill, hello science: Pfizer debuts redesigned logo with double helix

Pfizer’s got a new blue. Two new blues in fact, with the company’s rebrand and new logo design. Gone is the staid blue oval pill background, replaced by a two-tone blue double helix spiral.

It’s the first significant visual redesign for Pfizer in 70 years since the company began using the blue oval background. The tagline outlining Pfizer’s purpose, “Breakthroughs that change patients' lives,” remains the same.

The new logo signals Pfizer’s “shift from commerce to science. We’ve unlocked the pill form to reveal the core of what we do,” Pfizer explains on its website.

Along with the redesign, Pfizer debuted two new video ads—one explaining the new logo and another that continues its “Science Will Win” campaign, begun in April. The second video features modern-day and historical images of scientists with bold letter proclamations and complementary voiceover statements, such as, “We believe science can cure every human disease—and we’re going all in.”

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“Our new identity reflects the dignity of Pfizer’s history and captures the innovative spirit and science focus alive in the company today,” Sally Susman, executive VP and chief corporate affairs officer, said on the new Pfizer website.

CEO Albert Bourla added, “Pfizer is no longer in the business of just treating diseases—we're curing and preventing them."

The new logo is a result of 18 months of work, a Pfizer spokesperson said, in an email. That includes a pause on the creative work for several months beginning in March "as the company became laser-focused on the development of a COVID-19 vaccine."

The process included surveying patients and doctors globally, as well as narrowing 200 designs down to four before selecting the eventual winner, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

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The rebrand comes as Pfizer rides a reputation wave of good news, begun after it and partner BioNTech first announced positive COVID-19 vaccine data in November. Reports of the vaccine’s 95% effectiveness rate boosted Pfizer’s image with more than 48% of Americans who heard about it, agreeing it gave them a more positive view of the drugmaker.