The even bigger point – he dared to fail with his client’s money. It never ceases to amaze me how big agencies are able to get away with such b—s—. There is so much great design out there, maybe Tropicana should have looked around at smaller groups who really know how to create great designs that appeal to consumers – just a thought.

This guy would have been fired from the Apprentice before the first project ended.

When you’re immersed in your daily worklife, reaching your professional goals, dealing with your clients, internal politics, etc., you never get a chance leave your body to float up to the ceiling, look down on yourself and the business you’re in and really take survey of things.

Once I did that, I can tell you that I was able to see the painfully obvious. In this case, I completely understand the challenges any shop would face with such a daunting assignment as this and the unusually large pile of bullshit Arnell spews clearly belies what HE’s actually good at. And it’s not great design, brother.

Take a look at those hardbacks on your shelf near your monitor and drafting table – find the great design by guys like Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Saul Bass…you get the idea – and just compare bodies of work to this self-described design genius. Please. These guys faced the same core challenges and changed the face of modern design with their creativity.

Arnell is an embarrassment to the craft, Paul. Believe it.

The design world has been flooded with a load of mediocrity since every one with a computer and an Adobe package is now a “designer.” It makes it very difficult for those with talent (not hype!) to make a name for themselves. The field of photography has only experienced this phenomenon in the last decade or so, we in the design industry have been putting up with it for almost 20 years now.

Everything else is a non story to me. The 35 millions – there’s bigger figures. Its a lot for sure but I woudl guess still normal for a brand like that. The bullshitting to the executives – hey it’s the advertising industry. In a way he’s doing his job. The BS is always there on this level. Its kinda of sad but I wouldn’t mind it and the 35 Millions if the design was good and fresh and contemporary but it isn’t

I don’t seem to recall the new textured cap. Maybe they could have saved 10 Million right there? ;)

Ever hear of the Celine Dion/Chrysler disaster? Millions spent on Arnell’s cunningly-presented shitty ideas, only to have the campaign scrapped due to a direct downturn in sales/support and money wasted. And it’s interesting to hear him use the same “ergonomic experience” bullshit to explain his Chrysler disaster and his Tropicana debacle.

And his SoBe 3D Super Bowl spot that he claims is as monumental and important as Edison’s invention of the motion picture? Really? Can you even recall that commercial?

Add the Gatorade “G” rebranding/advertising to this mess and you’ll begin to see a pattern here.

I think the story here is that now, if the gatherings of the spineless don’t call bullshit on Arnell’s bullshit, the buying public will have no problem and an influential medium to take on that responsibility…

Brilliant analysis. Thanks.

Nice Tie.

1) Arnell is being made a scapegoat for bad sales. The packaging is bad IMO but it’s only part of the problem and while I’m not fan of Arnell, there were countless Pepsi execs who signed off on it and bought into all his BS. The Pepsi document is truly a bunch of pseudo-intellectual-DaVinci-code-BS. So, while he is indeed the source of the BS, there were many many people involved in the $35 million decision to go ahead with the redesign, not to mention other people who were involved in the marketing, distribution, placement and promotion who are also culpable for bad sales. PepsiCo is a big public company, so their stockholders want to see ACTION and want to see them make bold moves so they don’t take their dwindling 401K funds out of Pepsi stock.

2) Arnell used an effective strategy for getting his stupid idea greenlighted. He used the psychology of the situation – a room full of paranoid execs, each one more scared than the next to put forth a strong opinion, so nobody calls him on his BS. If you pseudo-intellectualize anything enough, you can convince a room full of execs that it’s genius. Like “The Emperor’s New Clothes”. If the Tropicana documentation was anything like the Pepsi rebranding, then I imagine the cap must be the very source of love and harmony in the universe.

3) The outside of the orange usually looks better than the juice. OJ is generally lumpy with pulp and doesn’t pour well or have physical characteristics that are as visually interesting as, say Pepsi or Beer. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that it’s natural and most marketed drinks are not.

4) The old packaging looks like crap. Just because Petey boy’s carton looks like the juice version of Surface Magazine (aka: bland, sans-serif, lacking in interest and flourish) doesn’t mean the old design was good either. The only thing it’s got going for it is the concept of an orange with a straw in it, but visually it’s cluttered and looks about as dynamic as the newest generation of $5 and $20 bills.

But the point here is that Peter Arnell represents what goes horribly wrong in this industry on a scale and playing field not really seen before with such immediacy. And APE is making the point that the new social media has EVERYTHING to do with that – and we’re active participants in it with this very thread.

The fact that Arnell looks such an asshole is because he really is one: it’s been a very long time since I’ve seen such a ripe bunch of bullshit berries being squeezed into one carafe and passed around as a valuable vintage. Jeezus, did I just say that?

I don’t care how many focus groups they did, there is no way this new package won over consumers…unless you did the focus group with Ikea and Target employees.

It’s soo funny. There is so much money to built into budgets for package redesigns that companies continue to spend it as if they HAVE to do what they’ve done every 4-5 years prior….”Well we really need to spend this money on a new package redesign because it’s time. Irregardless of whether it’s necessarily the right thing to do in the marketplace.

Be interesting if Co’s cut back the crap spending to help save themselves instead of looking for government handouts, bailouts etc….

Enough of my rant on Corporate America for today.

CARRY ON PEEPS.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/03/02/secrets-of-orange-ju.html

It is so similar that i wonder how it didnt cross the company’s mind.

Drink apple juice. Because OJ will kill you.

Good to know that this is what the world has come to.

I say they should have made the boxes with mirrors all over them so people can see their own face everytime they grab a carton. Now that’s what I want in my fridge.