Peter Arnell Still Has One Fan: Kyra Sedwick

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Peter Arnell may be the most hated man in advertising but someone still loves him — Kyra Sedgwick, star of Arnell’s ads for Tropicana (see video below).

Arnell recently made a fool of himself on multiple fronts with high profile screwups on his Pepsi, Tropicana, and General Motors clients, and a catastrophically failed book deal. But Sedgwick is a fan. She did a commercial for Trop50, a low-sugar version of Tropicana orange juice, that Arnell directed. Here’s what she told Entertainment Weekly:

I’ve never done a commercial before. I’ve always been like, Meryl Streep doesn’t do commercials! But they called me and said, “What do you think?” I got scared, but then I talked to the director, Peter Arnell. And boy, it turned out beyond my wildest dreams.

Interesting choice of words, Kyra! I think that being forced to dance in a sexy way by Arnell would be beyond my “wildest” dreams, too.

Sedgwick chose the spot at the same time she lost a bunch of money with Bernie Madoff:

We didn’t lose everything, we lost a pension. Some people had it so much worse.

BNET drew the speculative conclusion that the Madoff loss made commercials more appetizing for Sedgwick back in March.

Sedgwick also said that husband Kevin Bacon has a Google alert for both their names but she doesn’t because hates reading about herself. So, Hello Kevin! I thought you were great in Mystic River and Sleepers. Tell your wife she was awesome in Singles. (I’m dating myself, I know.)

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

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