The Talented Mr. Arnell

Perhaps you've been wondering what Peter Arnell has been up to since the launch of his redesigned packages for Tropicana and Pepsi, the latter mostly successful, the former decidedly not. Perhaps you've been asking yourself, "Who is this fellow who can land mega-accounts by talking about 'the dynamic of perimeter oscillations' and 'invitational expressions'? What are his secrets and how can I learn them?"

Well, wonder and ask no longer. Newsweek got up close and personal with the guy they call "mad man" and "brand genius"; the guy whose firm, Arnell Group, has done "high-profile work" for Samsung, Banana Republic, McDonald's, DKNY, Home Depot, and Pfizer; the guy whose "glass-wrapped office" (7 World Trade Center) contains white-leather couches and a 105-inch flat-panel screen and affords "amazing views of Manhattan and the harbor."

Read all about it.

It turns out—and I know you'll be surprised to hear it—that Mr. Arnell exhibits, nay cultivates, a certain eccentricity. Among the background details uncovered by reporter Daniel Lyons:

• Arnell once lost more than 250 pounds in 30 months, dropping from 407 to 152 by eating the same food every day: carrots, cucumber slices and steamed cauliflower, dipped in mustard and sesame seeds. These days he consumes about 20 oranges a day, "which turn his hands yellow."
• His maternal grandfather, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, was a fishmonger in the Fulton Fish Market. Arnell's father changed the family surname from Abramovitz.
• After graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School, in 1976, Arnell talked himself into an internship with the architect Michael Graves. He never attended college.
• Arnell owns 1,600 pairs of eyeglasses.
• "Two former business associates, who requested anonymity to avoid damaging their relationship with Arnell, say Arnell carried a handgun in an ankle holster."
• He's friends with Martha Stewart (and has appeared on her TV show, not mentioned in the article).
• Arnell is overseeing development of the Peapod, a tiny battery-powered car for Chrysler. He has "even put his initials—as in Peter Eric Arnell—into the name." The car has no air conditioning and will sell for about $12,500. Arnell wants to call its buyers "peaple."

And then there's this:

Arnell has been compared to movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, meaning you could fill a book with horror stories about his cruel behavior—screaming at people, even hitting them. "He has this remarkable capacity to be both the most intoxicating character—lovable, brilliant, seductively intellectual—and then turn on a dime and be staggeringly cruel," says a former business associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of alienating Arnell. This person recalls Arnell humiliating employees by making them get down and do push-ups in front of clients. "He is unencumbered with any sense of morality. Until you experience it firsthand, it's just completely and utterly unfathomable."

And this:

Arnell ... can't understand the kerfuffle over his work for Tropicana. "Can you imagine such mishegoss over a freaking* box of juice?" he says. "I can't believe that for the rest of my life I'm going to be known as Peter 'Tropicana' Arnell." He says Tropicana overreacted to complaints. "I have my own perspective on it. But it's not my brand. It's not my company. So what the hell? I got paid a lot of money, and I have 30 other projects. You move on." (Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana North America, says Tropicana will continue working with Arnell.)

But please, just read the whole article, and also the comments, which include this recollection: "Peter Arnell told my daughter-in-law that he was going to break up her marriage when she went to work for him many years ago. And he did. She still works for him."

But wait, there's more! Advertising Age reported April 2 that sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line "plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars." The new packaging was recalled Feb. 23, after just two months on the market.

From the Ad Age article:

Now that the numbers are out, it's clear why PepsiCo's Tropicana moved as fast as it did. According to Information Resources Inc., unit sales dropped 20%, while dollar sales decreased 19%, or roughly $33 million, to $137 million between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22. Moreover, several of Tropicana's competitors appear to have benefited from the misstep, notably Minute Maid, Florida's Natural and Tree Ripe. Varieties within each of those brands posted double-digit unit sales increases during the period. Private-label products also saw an increase during the period, in keeping with broader trends in the food and beverage space.

One man's mishegoss, another man's schadenfreude.

__

*According to reporter Lyons, "freaking" was not the precise word that Arnell used.

Comments

[Amy Reynaldo]

It's been over a month since Tropicana said they were going back to the old look. When?? I saw a new-look Tropicana billboard by my grocery store this week, and haven't seen the return to old packaging yet. Except when I go to IHOP, which still has the same old straw-in-an-orange placards in carafes at the tables to promote OJ sales.

[Armel Bile]

PR Newswire is mentioning that Tropicana decided to move back based on feedback gathered through Social Media tools.
Do you think this is for real or is this a smart move to start a positive buzz using their name?

PS: link to PR Newswire article available on my blog.

[Nancy Friedman]

@Armel: I mentioned the Twitter connection in my original post: http://is.gd/qBPd

I use Twitter a lot, and I did notice a lot of negative commentary.

[golublog]

He sounds pretty terrible. I think all those oranges messed with his mind. That Tropicana redesign was not too impressive.

[Devon Thomas Treadwell]

Wow. Just... wow. These two statements astound me:

"...sales of the Tropicana Pure Premium line plummeted 20% between Jan. 1 and Feb. 22, costing the brand tens of millions of dollars."

And:

"Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana North America, says Tropicana will continue working with Arnell."

WTF? A 20% loss in sales in a month, directly attributable to Arnell's incompetence, and Tropicana still plans to work with him?

Maybe it's time to fire the president of Tropicana.