Manhattan's media news and gossip site Gawker has named Peter Arnell as potentially one of New York's worst bosses. They are compiling a set of 14 profiles of presumed, HR-challenged, baddies. Gawker identifies Mr. Arnell as the founder and chief creative officer of a PR firm, the Arnell Group. I don't know. Is he a PR person? Sure, it sounds like he needs one, but I'm having trouble confirming that he is one. In fact, I've read what he does including a stop at his own site and I'm more confused than ever.

Nowhere, for example, in this Adrants piece from awhile back is he identified as a PR person. Next, heading this post is a picture of Mr. Arnell — the same one Gawker used and which seems to have evoked a visceral reaction among many readers. Point is, it comes from this website at which there is a profile of Mr. Arnell's background and achievements. He's very accomplished, but it doesn't say he is a PR person here either.

Not knowing and not caring very much about whether or not Mr. Arnell qualifies for Satan-hood among bosses, PR or otherwise, I was nevertheless interested in knowing more about the Arnell Group, so I went there. I'm just going to lay out verbatim what I found:

Arnell Group is a multi-disciplinary brand and product invention company that executes across every consumer and trade touchpoint. Arnell Group's mission is to create incremental growth and shareholder value to our clients and partners through proprietary intellectual property revenue streams. Arnell Group examines the space between brand assets and consumer desire to identify opportunity and to develop and implement business-building solutions from product to experience. We help brands capture and realize differentiation by exploiting a unique emotional dimension in a rational world of business.

"… from product to experience?" From Justin to Kelly?

Product invention company? Touchpoint? Exploiting a unique emotional dimension? He's Edison, a masseur, and Freud?

The unique emotional dimension I get from reading all that? I get the overwhelming dimension of pretension.

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