In my own art form (theater), there's a fair bit of effort spent being deliberately stupid in order to get us out of our existing patterns. A lot of famously idiotic acting exercises aren't really about the work you're doing, but about breaking your habits and being un-self-conscious about it.
The whole theory is that you can't think your way into a natural performance, unless what you want is exactly the same as the actor's own habits. There are things that make you instantly recognizeable even at a distance: how you walk, how much of a gap you place at the end of a sentence, how high you pitch your voice. A 3D model has the kind of control they need to walk in character, stand in character, raise their eyebrows in character, etc., but you don't. You have to first break your existing habits, then start from blank.
It's not the only way to act; you can get great performances without that. But it's a valid tool that works for some people.
I don't particularly like that new Pepsi logo, but it's still in use. They use it all over the place. So it sounds like it was moderately successful. It didn't become truly iconic (the way the Coca-Cola or Disney logos are), but that kind of success is rare.