This week, Deutsch LA Creative Chairman Pete Favat announced his retirement from advertising, ending his nearly 40-year career that included seminal campaigns such as the “Truth” anti-teen smoking campaign from the American Legacy Foundation (now Truth Initiative), as well as beloved brand characters such as Converse’s Grandmama from the ‘90s, Progressive’s Flo and Dr Pepper’s Lil’ Sweet. Here, a look back on some of his greatest moves as a creative and a leader.
Favat’s first TV ad, for Friskies Buffet and created out of SSC&B Lintas in New York City, won a Gold Clio. At the time, “the Clios were broadcast on CBS,” Favat recalled. “My mom watched it! And then I went on a five-year dry spell.” The humble pie from that period taught him to work harder going forward.
Before Tyler Perry’s Madea, Converse had Grandmama—aka former NBA player Larry Johnson in a dress. The campaign was one of two ideas Favat created at Boston agency Houston Effler in the 1990s in the hopes that Johnson, then the No. 1 NBA draft pick, would sign with the brand. One depicted Magic Johnson and Larry Bird working together to create the greatest-ever basketball player—a powerhouse with both their names—Larry Johnson. The other was a bit more daring and promoted Converse’s new shoe that was so light that even a grandmother could dunk in it.
“I had to fly down to Dallas by myself to Larry Johnson's apartment, and he’s a big dude,” Favat said of the 6-foot-7 power forward. He told Johnson, “I've watched you play. I know how fast you are. I'm going to flip over an idea and if you don't like it, and you charge me, I'm going to jump out the window.’” Favat then turned over a 1989 Annie Liebovitz photo of Ella Fitzgerald in a smart red suit, cap and vintage glasses. “We want to dress you up like this and you're going to beat the shit out of other NBA players wearing these shoes,’” Favat told him. Johnson’s response? “I’m in!’”
Grandmama's spots included a 1994 "Wizard of Oz"-themed Superbowl ad. She became so popular that she even landed a guest role on an episode of the sitcom “Family Matters.”
Ocean Spray’s charming campaign featuring farmers standing crotch-deep in cranberries came out of Favat’s ignorance about how the fruits are grown. Favat went into the brand’s archives and found something odd about a lot of the photos. “Why does nobody have any legs?” he asked, to which an Ocean Spray staffer responded, “Well, they’re standing in a bog."
When the team at Arnold presented the campaign idea, Favat remembers telling the client, “You’re spending $600,000 to produce a spot with a mom and a kid in a kitchen. You cannot own a kitchen or a mom or a little kid, even if you had 30 bajillion dollars. But you can own this bog and the farmers. Nobody can touch that. Coca-Cola doesn’t have a bog.”
Throughout his career, Favat stepped behind the camera to direct as well. In 1999, he helmed “I Can’t Breathe," a documentary that aired on MTV and told the story of Pam Laffin, a smoker who developed emphysema at an early age, had a lung transplant at 29 but ultimately succumbed to the disease. The film was part of Arnold’s anti-smoking efforts for the Massachusetts Department of Health. Years after it aired, Laffin’s two daughters told Favat that proceeds from the doc allowed them to attend college. Both of them became nurses.
Arnold’s work on that account led to the agency winning duties in 2000 on the $500 million pitch for the American Legacy Foundation’s (Truth Initiative’s) anti-teen smoking account, alongside Crispin Porter Bogusky, which had also been doing standout work for youth tobacco prevention in Florida at the time. “It's the story of how David beat the crap out of Goliath,” Favat said of the campaign. “The reason why we called it ‘Truth’ is because they [Big Tobacco] lied.”
The campaign helped teen smoking rates drop 50%, it landed on Ad Age’s list of top campaigns of the 21st century and it also won a Grand Effie. One year, however, the Effies awarded both ALF and Marlboro a gold prize. “We turned ours in,” Favat said. “There was no way that could happen because our job was to make them unsuccessful.”
One of Favat’s favorite campaigns at Deutsch LA was a 2014 breakfast push for Taco Bell, which at the time was the biggest in the brand’s history.
The effort tapped real-life Ronald McDonalds to promote the brand’s breakfast menu. Favat recalled, “One of the Ronalds said, ‘I could not wait to do this thing with Taco Bell! You know how hard it was growing up with my name after McDonald’s invented Ronald McDonald? Turn that camera on!’”
Converse’s Grandmama, Progressive's Flo, Dr Pepper’s Lil’ Sweet were among the characters Favat helped to build throughout his career. When asked about what makes a successful one, he offered, “I think it’s the absurdity that makes it really work. The Jolly Green Giant—it’s kind of weird, but kind of cool. What the hell does Tony the Tiger have to do with cornflakes? The [Geico] gecko cracks me up. It’s so absurd because you know what GEICO stands for? Government Employee Insurance Company.”
For Progressive, the team at Arnold imagined Flo in a fantasy supermarket scenario, reminiscent of films like “Heaven Can Wait” and “Bruce Almighty" set against a clean white backdrop. “If Flo wasn't wacky, and we didn't cast an improv actress [Stephanie Courtney] who was real edgy, it would have failed,” Favat said.
Favat built a reputation for bringing heart to the job. Throughout his career, whenever he promoted a member of his team, he would send a thank you letter to their parents. “I always write that you should feel proud of yourself because you gave birth to a talented baby," he said. "They’re born with talent, but you learn respect for other people and you learn work ethic, so in some ways, you [the parents] got promoted today too.”
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