told Adweek in 1996, referring to his early creative thinking for Samsung.
Speaking to me more than twenty years later, he was proud of this insight:
“It was before aesthetics were big in technology, before Apple released the
iMac. This sort of thinking was still new, and Chairman Lee had the vision
to see it coming.
“We decided that since Motorola controlled the space for mobile
phones, and Sony had televisions, we were going to enter the American
market with microwave ovens.”
But this posed a marketing problem. Microwaving food, it was
rumored, was a cause of cancer and other maladies.
“One night after a bad marketing meeting, I was so depressed. I took a
taxi home and looked at the driver, a young Russian migrant. He was
perfect for what I needed.” Arnell invited him back to his studio to pose
shirtless for a test shoot. “He probably thought I was coming on to him,”
Arnell joked.
He gave the nineteen-year-old driver a Samsung microwave, told him to
hold it under his arm, and started taking photographs of the microwave and
his model’s sculpted abs.
Developing the black-and-white photos in his darkroom, Arnell
immediately sensed a hit. He called his newly discovered model
“Microwave Man” and ran a series of magazine and television ads and
billboards featuring the sculpted taxi driver.
“Simply healthy,” the writing called out in a magazine ad. “Vegetables
cooked in a microwave retain more vitamins than any other form of
cooking.”
“It was a clear standout,” said Thomas Rhee, former senior vice
president of new business development at Samsung. “We were sensing a
new thing at the time”—a growing movement to package the product in a
simple, neat, aesthetic way, rather than just telling consumers about its
hardware features. Samsung was connecting to Americans and their
everyday needs.
But Arnell’s vision for Samsung had its detractors as well.
“People said this is strange,” Thomas said. One problem was that
Samsung’s products still fell short of pristine quality. The marketing
campaigns—which screamed luxury and “premium”—risked disappointing
customers.
“Let’s put it this way,” a Samsung insider told Advertising Age during