At the top of Peter Favat’s to-do list is something of a Herculean task: Eliminate smoking. For the past six years, the creative director at Boston agency Arnold Communications has spearheaded the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control Program media campaign, which boasts one of the highest adult cessation rates nationwide and has resulted in a 30% drop in cigarette consumption.
"The anti-tobacco account is very personal to [Pete]," says Arnold senior copywriter Annie Finnegan. "A lot of people think of it as an opportunity, like it’s a great, high-profile account. But with him, it’s like, ‘Let’s shut the bastards down.’ His work is brilliant, but not because he set out to make a brilliant ad. It’s because he wants to send as powerful a message as possible. He really wants people to stop smoking."
Favat won the account when he was a partner/creative director at now defunct Houston Herstek Favat. Two years ago Arnold bought the agency. Principal Doug Houston relocated to Los Angeles, where he now heads up Houston Helm Fattal Collins, while Favat and creative director Rich Herstek joined Arnold, bringing the anti-tobacco account with them. (Herstek recently retired.)
"Once you dive in and realize what is going on … the extent of the corruption, the kinds of things [tobacco companies] are putting in cigarettes to make them more addictive, it just makes you really mad," Favat says. "There’s only one reason they do it—to make money."
Now, Favat—along with Finnegan and Arnold senior art director Robert Hamilton—is preparing to battle big tobacco on a national stage. In September, The American Legacy Foundation awarded its anti-tobacco account—valued at $150 million to $250 million annually—to a team of agencies headed by Arnold. American Legacy was formed by 46 state attorneys general, and was born out of the settlement with the tobacco industry over state lawsuits filed against tobacco companies. Along with Arnold, the agency team includes Crispin Porter+Bogusky, Miami; Burrell Communications, Chicago; Los Angeles-based Imada Wong; and Bromley, Aguilar & Associates, San Antonio, Texas.
Favat characterizes the American Legacy work, the first of which is due to break soon, as a departure of sorts. Whereas his previous efforts targeted many different audiences, the national campaign is focused on teenagers. There is substantially greater funding for the national endeavor, he says, so the work "can’t just feel like PSAs."
What won’t change is the hard-hitting, honest approach Favat has taken in the past. "We’ve always tried to be really genuine in everything we do, and people over time have picked up on that," he says. "They believe us. We are the voice of truth."
"Last Goodbye," for example, which Favat directed for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Control Program, consisted of six documentary-style spots that follow 29-year-old Pam Laffin, a young mother who began smoking at the age of 10 and contracted emphysema when she was 24. Laffin is awaiting her second lung transplant, but her chances of surviving the operation are poor. In the ads, Laffin reveals her greatest fear: getting a call from her doctor who says that a donor lung has been found for her, because she would then have to say goodbye to her children, possibly for the last time. "I wanted people to know what it’s like to know someone who’s dying [from smoking]," Favat says.
After the ads broke, Favat received numerous voicemail messages from smokers in Massachusetts. He recalls one woman, a smoker for 47 years, who said, "By commercial number four, it just did it for me. I can’t imagine why I’d do this. And I just want to thank you."
"It makes this so worth it," Favat explains. "It would be really great to knock [smoking] off forever, so future generations could grow up not knowing what this crap was."
Uphill Battle
That won’t be easy, considering the estimated $5 billion tobacco companies spend every year on advertising. "It’s tough," Favat concedes. "You’re talking to people who don’t want to hear about how to run their lives." But the creative director remains undeterred. In addition to his commercial efforts, he also recently directed a one-hour documentary film, I Can’t Breathe, about Laffin and the tobacco industry, which he hopes will generate interest among television programmers. Junior high and high schools throughout Massachusetts are already using the film.
Favat began helming the anti-tobacco work himself as a cost-saving measure. He says, "I’ve become so intimate with the account that maybe I’m just a control freak. I don’t know. I have such a clear idea of what I want to do that if I didn’t get it [right], I would just be mad at myself."
By the same token, Favat is "very involved" in choosing directors when not directing himself. "Every creative, when presenting the spot [to potential directors], already has it done—filmed, edited and the music [composed]—in his head. So using your gut, you try to see who’s going to make your dream come true. Of course, you always keep an open mind, thinking that this person is going to better your ideas." He mentions spot director/feature cinematographer Bob Richardson of Morton Jankel Zander, Los Angeles, with whom he has collaborated several times: "Bob always says, ‘Pete, at the very least we’ll get exactly what we want.’ I love that. It’s a great way to look at things."
Favat earned a bachelor’s degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York. After graduating in ’81, he worked briefly at Wunderman Cato Johnson, New York, before moving over to Ammirati Puris Lintas, New York (now Lowe Lintas & Partners), where he was an art director on accounts such as Coke, Diet Coke and Friskies cat food. Favat’s first commercial, Friskies’ "Tour Guide," directed by Colin Chilvers of now defunct MGMMO, won a Gold Clio. The ad featured parrots dressed in costumes, marching in front of a cat that took no notice because it was busy eating Friskies.
In ’86, Favat took on an associate creative director position at Boston agency Ingalls, where he worked on accounts such as Converse, Ocean Spray, and the Institute of Contemporary Art. He was later promoted to creative director before Houston hired him. Teaming with Houston and Herstek, Favat grew the agency’s billings from $35 million to $160 million. Converse followed Favat from Ingalls, and the agency also won the accounts of NEC computers, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Massachusetts Tourism, and Fidelity.
Houston Herstek Favat also won kudos at numerous regional award shows, which raised Arnold’s interest. Eventually, the partners opted to sell. "We just thought, ‘Hey, this could be great,’" says Favat. "Arnold is a great place. I’ve worked in big agencies in New York. This feels more homey, more comfortable than you’d imagine a billion-dollar company to be."
In addition to American Legacy, this summer Arnold was awarded the Royal Caribbean cruises account. "We are going to reposition the cruise category," Favat says. The agency plans to target a younger demographic and to present cruises as adventures. "It’s the only way you can go and kayak up to an iceberg in Alaska, or chill out in a sauna, and then in the afternoon get on a helicopter and go ice climbing," Favat explains. "People think a cruise is about food, when actually it’s a really cool way to see the world."
The creative director also continues to work with Converse. Noam Murro of Stiefel & Company, Santa Monica, directed one recent ad, "Helium." "What else are you going to do with shoes that have helium in them?" Favat says of the ad, which features athletes whose high voices suggest they’ve just taken a hit of helium. "It was the first joke that I thought of. The client said, ‘Don’t even think about bringing us that idea.’ But I was like, ‘Why not?’ They think it should be hard, that we should slave for five weeks. But some of the best ideas I get are in the car ride back from the client."
Even so, Favat says research is a priority. "It’s what we do well at this agency. We really get into the mindset of people. When we pitched Royal Caribbean, we had this whole new positioning platform, the whole soup to nuts. We went above and beyond what other agencies will do. I think the client thought, ‘Either they are totally on or they’re crazy.’
"It’s no longer about the company," he continues, "but about the company’s understanding of the consumer. It’s still branding, but it’s keeping what’s relevant to the consumer in mind—not what’s important to the stockholders."
As for Arnold, Favat believes the agency is headed towards new heights. "Volkswagen really started to define this agency," he says. "I think [American Legacy and Royal Caribbean] are going to define it even further. It’s the next step."=
