How Arnell's Pepsi prez really could 'refresh everything'
Just in case you missed it in this week’s news stream (what with all the stories about economic stimulus, Australian wildfires and the C Brown/Ri-Ri bust up (literally)), I wanted to draw your attention to something truly significant: The revelation of a ‘Breathtaking Strategy’ from Arnell Group on behalf of its client, Pepsi.
It is, in every sense, a heartbreaking work of staggering conceit. A primer for creative prima donnas. A masturbatory masterpiece of business rationalization.
I told Pepsi that I wanted to go to Asia, to China and Japan, for a month and tuck myself away and just design it and study it and create it. – P. Arnell
For those who have yet to uncover the insights hidden within the 27-page tome, let me break it down for you: Arnell traces the historic geometries of Pepsi’s logo (‘perimeter oscillations’), parallels the evolution of the brand mark with the Golden Ratio of proportion as well as the earth’s electro-magnetic fields and, finally, employs attraction theory and statistics about the expansion of the universe—you know, f(x)=ex.
[1 light year = 671 million miles per hour]…I mean, duh!—in order to justify their multi-million dollar fee.
Indeed, as Peter Arnell himself explained to Advertising Age (Jan. 19 issue) “When I did the Pepsi logo, I told Pepsi that I wanted to go to Asia, to China and Japan, for a month and tuck myself away and just design it and study it and create it.” That kind of research—China AND Japan!—doesn’t come cheap.
As you might expect, there’s been quite a bit of hubub about the document, which is widely regarded to have been leaked by an Arnell staffer. Most folks are astounded by the sheer chutzpah of it all. Some are appalled at the convoluted reasoning and pandering tone. Gawker, perhaps predictably, ran a snarky little piece that seemed to strike just the right note.
But what’s going UNsaid is, I think, much more interesting; i.e. that this is exactly what the branding/advertising/marcomms world needs right now. It’s a stark look in the mirror. A reality check that forces us all to re-evaluate the way we package and present our work, lest we come off like a pack of raving douchebags.
Look, everyone on the services side of this business—read: agencies, freelancers, consultants—knows that what we we do is part art, part science; bringing together strategy, design and messaging in unique, compelling ways. And when it’s done right, the results are genuinely extraordinary.
Too often, though, whether it’s to compensate for inferior work or profoundly low self esteem, we allow the focus to shift away from the results and begin to dwell on our own extraordinary genius. We spend more time proving that we’re the smartest people in the room than we do on coming up with solutions that solve business problems. We convince ourselves that effort we put in to the work legitimizes its quality.
With any luck, the mere prospect of ending up in the same hall of shame as did Arnell with this stuff will keep us all a little more honest in the future.
