'Breathtaking' Ad Guru Whiffs Again

There's not much to like about recessions, but they do have the virtue of exposing the puffed-up marketing charlatans whose chief talent is talking a good game. Anyone can take credit for rising sales figures during a boom, but when the tide goes out, to quote Warren Buffett, you see who's been swimming naked, intellectually speaking.

Here I refer to Madison Avenue visionary Peter Arnell. A month ago, at an event held to preview PepsiCo brands' new marketing efforts, I watched in disbelief as Arnell explained the brilliant thinking behind his repositioning of Tropicana orange juice. His revamp included a new tagline -- "Squeeze" -- that would, he said, cause parents to associate the love they feel while hugging their children with the act of purchasing orange juice. Really. He also made over Tropicana's packaging, tossing out the orange-with-a-straw-in-it image in favor of a glass of juice -- because, Arnell explained, consumers needed to be able to visualize the juice inside the orange. That struck me as the sort of thing you tell a client when you have no actual ideas to offer but would like to be able to bill for something.

But just how full of it Arnell was I didn't know until I read today in The New York Times that Tropicana is switching back to its old packaging after learning that consumers detest the new look:

The about-face comes after consumers complained about the makeover in letters, e-mail messages and telephone calls and clamored for a return of the original look.

Some of those commenting described the new packaging as "ugly" or "stupid," and resembling "a generic bargain brand" or a "store brand."

"Do any of these package-design people actually shop for orange juice?" the writer of one e-mail message asked rhetorically. "Because I do, and the new cartons stink."

It's not in the slightest bit coincidental that Arnell is responsible for the widely-mocked memo laying out the "breathtaking" strategy behind Pepsi's new logo, which harnesses the power of Taoism, the Golden Mean and Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity, among other concepts. So far, Arnell has avoided taking credit for the memo. So he's not completely out of touch.