Peter Arnell is having a bad year. The Omnicom agency recently rebranded Tropicana orange juice (a PepsiCo brand), changing the long lived orange-with-straw-sticking-out to a simple glass of juice. The $35 million redesign went live this year, but after receiving gobs of complaints from consumers, the brand has decided to revert to the old look.
Accompanying the packaging redesign (which included the glass of juice and a cap that resembles half of an orange) is a full fledged campaign extolling the familial wonders of freshly squeezed orange juice. Back in January we posted the above video from an Arnell/TBWA/PepsiCo press conference right before to the Super Bowl. Everyone at the gathering expected to learn about Pepsi’s Super Bowl Spots — but before anything was said we were forced through a torturous presentation about the $35 million redesign. It was like being in history class on a sunny Friday at 2pm. More than a few people were miffed by Arnell’s trickery, but that’s OK because now it’s come full circle.
Anyway, says Arnell in a Times interview, “Tropicana is doing exactly what they should be doing (by reverting to the old look)”
“I’m incredibly surprised by the reaction,” but “I’m glad Tropicana is getting this kind of attention.”
Yeah, of course you are dude. But hey how about the part where your agency charged Tropicana $35 million for a redesign and campaign that are now totally fucking moot. Wait, not moot; damaging. The people must have their orange with protruding straw — just like Arnell needs their bullshit sandwich table at lunchtime.
As for the campaign accompanying the redesign — it’s staying. No word yet on if the redesigned carton will be replaced within the campaign. But um, we expect it should be.
This situation + the Pepsi PDF = priceless.
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