Coca-Cola announced a subtle tweak to its brand design on Monday. The iconic beverage company dubbed it a “visual refresh,” and there’s a new 90-second video to announce the changes. But social media users have spotted something weird.
What was your first thought after watching that video? If you were craving a cigarette, you’re not alone.
“The typeface looks very similar to Marlboro,” one user wrote in a common response. Another user wrote, “Love that they just leaned into the fact that soda is the new cigarettes by just straight up doing the Marlboro font.”
Love that they just leaned into the fact that soda is the new cigarettes by just straight up doing the Marlboro font pic.twitter.com/NTO3VGFdcL
— DriftedTekk (@driftedtekk) July 20, 2026
Designer Andreas Storm notes that it’s technically a different typeface, but there’s no denying the similarities.
It’s not the Marlboro font pic.twitter.com/kV1YERJexU
— Andreas Storm (@avstorm) July 20, 2026
Marlboro is the most popular cigarette brand in the world and has been for decades. That’s where things can get a bit tricky from a branding perspective. Sugary sodas aren’t healthy by any stretch of the imagination. By the early 21st century, tobacco became the one consumer product with which you definitely didn’t want your own brand associated. Whenever people identify a new public health threat, it’s inevitably compared to tobacco.
Is sitting the new smoking? Should social media companies be held accountable for addiction like the tobacco companies were in the late 1990s? When will AI have its Big Tobacco moment? These are the questions we hear in various media outlets and we immediately understand the potential ramifications. Public health campaigns were launched, smoking bans were instituted, and smoking rates plummeted.
Adult smoking rates in 1965 were hovering around 42%. By 2022, those rates plunged to just 11%, according to the America Lung Association. Tobacco brands became so toxic that the corporate parent of Philip Morris rebranded to Altria Group. So it’s a little odd that Coca-Cola would use a typeface so similar to Marlboro.
Coca-Cola didn’t immediately respond to questions Monday, but the company seems pretty confident in its press release that this is a good decision.
“Coca‑Cola is one of the most recognized brands in the world, and with that comes a responsibility to keep evolving,” Arnab Roy, Coca-Cola’s Global Brand Head, said in a statement published online.
“This refresh is about being clearer and more consistent in how we show up, wherever people experience our brand,” continued Roy. “By building on the things people already know and love, we’re creating a stronger foundation for growth while staying unmistakably Coca‑Cola.”
Tobacco companies spent ungodly amounts of money to spread their brands in the 20th century. Back in 1983, Brown & Williamson, the maker of Kool and Lucky Strike, paid to have cigarettes appear in Ghostbusters. The same company signed a contract with Sylvester Stallone worth $500,000 to smoke in at least five of his movies in the 1980s.
By the 1990s, states started suing the Big Tobacco companies to recoup some of their health care costs from smoking-related illness. And by the end of the decade, almost every state was on board with the suits. New restrictions were put in place to restrict where advertising could appear, and the companies pledged not to target minors anymore.
There have been calls for similar restrictions on soda advertising, and many health-conscious parents want to remove sugary drinks from public places like schools. The soda companies are fighting back, obviously, but associating your product with the world’s most popular cigarette, however unintentional it may be, feels like an unforced error.
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