Ah, Peter Arnell – brand architect, notoriously difficult creative svengali and what insiders used to call, Omnicom chief, John Wren’s secret weapon. Not matter what you want to call him, he’s the man behind the new over priced Pepsi brand re-work. Right now, Arnell seems to be on a 70s kick design-wise. Both the Pepsi and Tropicana logos are throw backs to an era when recession was a hot topic, not too unlike now. The Super Bowl ad for Pepsi brand, Sobe, was also directed by Arnell and is the first ever 3-D commercial. Hoo. Rah. Intel is giving away over 130 million 3-D glasses to be made available at 28,000 Pepsi/SoBe displays around the country. This is a partnership with Dreamworks, which hopes to be releasing 3-D movies in theaters next year. Oh. This man knows how to make some cash. Let us not forget, Arnell’s the man with the “unheard-of ability to price his
brain at a million dollars a month.” Lets put that in perspective. At $12M a year minimuim, he’s kicking the shit out of the GDP of The Bahamas.
His clients would probably say he’s worth it. However, his employees may say otherwise. Arnell is legendary for being a difficult boss with a beyond fastidious nature, which means someone is in a whole lot of trouble for press links on his website being broken. Look. The man is a serious aesthete. He’s a control freak, which explains how a few years back he whittled down his weight from about 300 lbs to a trim 150 lbs. He’s the Karl Lagerfeld (the designer behind Chanel) of the ad business without the dieting book, copious amounts of jewelry or really, sense of fun.
How do I know Karl’s got one up on him? Arnell happens to be BBF with Martha “I’m not a crook” Stewart. Recently, he took Martha’s audience through the history of the automotive – complete with jaunty driving cap and gloves. The video goes on to show Peter driving the first Benz ever made around his picture perfect driveway. The man is such a priss. For heaven’s sake -he is wearing a driving suit with no sense of irony.
In part 2, Peter takes Martha through his new Pea Pod car for Chrysler. Arnell was tapped to work on Chrysler’s brand, as the Chief Innovation Officer over there. Is our bailout money paying his million dollar salary? Couldn’t we have just tapped that other guy… Right. Brian Collins or is he too busy messing around with Al Gore? I’m sure he’s cheaper.
The Pea Pod is a compact city EV with prices starting from around $20,000. This is a short range vehicle. It only goes 40 miles at a charge. The average commute time for Americans is 26 minutes one way, but most people report an average of 87 mins behind the wheel daily or 104 mins if you’ve got kids. It’s hyper- cute. Notice the car is smiling in the pic above? Why can’t eco just be cool. Why does it have to be cutesy? Sigh. This is most definitely going to be a niche vehicle. See? He’s just like Lagerfeld. He’s high concept and only for the few.