What symbol forms the center of the Pepsi globe logo?

A white wave forms the center of the Pepsi globe logo.

The Pepsi globe consists of red, white, and blue sections separated by a curved white band. The design developed from the bottle-cap imagery used by Pepsi-Cola and became especially recognizable in the twentieth century. The central white curve gives the circle a sense of motion and helps separate the two colored fields.

The wave is sometimes mistaken for a smile, a horizon, or a stylized letter. Those descriptions may explain how viewers perceive the shape, but the visual element is generally identified as a white wave. Pepsi changed the globe’s proportions, colors, and surrounding typography in later redesigns, including the 2008 identity. The logo should not be confused with the unrelated circular emblems of other beverage companies that use red, white, and blue.