Thasorn "Pete" Boonyanate: Bringing The Spice To Thai Advertising

By Mark Tungate

What’s the magic formula that makes Thai advertising so entertaining? One of its greatest practitioners shares his thoughts with us.

Everybody who loves creativity has a soft spot for Thai advertising. It’s funny, surreal, occasionally dramatic and nearly always over-the-top. It looks like nothing else. So it was a delight to talk to a leading name in the Thai creative community: Thasorn Boonyanate – also known as Pete – chief creative officer at BBDO Bangkok.

To get an idea of what he does, take a look at a recent piece of work for retailer Club 21 from Pete and his team, which scored a Silver at LIA. It’s all about the detail.

Normally I ask people what drew them to advertising. But with Pete there’s an easy explanation: his parents worked in the industry. Not that he necessarily intended to follow in their footsteps.

“Originally I wanted to be a film director, and I was studying film at university. But then I got kind of tricked by my mom. After I graduated, she said to me, ‘You know, working on commercial films means you can practice writing scripts every day. In a month you can make like two or three commercials, maybe 30 a year. So it’s a good way to practice before you make your own films.’ I thought – oh, that’s interesting.”

But his mom wasn’t entirely to blame. He was also influenced by the great Thai advertising director Thanonchai “Tor” Sornsriwichai. “He was the most awarded director in Cannes one year, but he said that he didn’t care about that. He just wanted his work to change the way people think, to make their lives better. So I listened to him, as well as my mom.”

BBDO and the creative obsession

Pete’s 15-year career has led him to BBDO not once, but three times, initially as a copywriter, then creative director – and now CCO. What’s the allure of the agency for him?

“I think it’s the original motto: ‘The work. The work. The work.’ I want to work in a place where they worship creativity like a religion.”

During his first stint at the agency, from 2012-15, he met somebody who embodied that ethos: Thai advertising pioneer Suthisak Sucharittanonta, who was CCO. Pete recalls: “He knew every piece of work that came out, and the name of the guy who made it. He’d ask you every day: ‘Can you make a piece of work that will win a Gold? A Grand Prix?’ He was obsessed with creativity.”

Pete realised he’d never find another job where people paid you for ideas. “You just have to come up with an idea. An idea that makes someone cry, or makes them laugh so hard they fall out of their chair. So now I’m obsessed as well – and I came back to BBDO because I believe in creativity.”

The Thai recipe for great ads

Inevitably I ask him what makes Thai creativity so extraordinary. He’s sitting outside, so he gestures to the palm tree behind him.

“You know, we are a developing country. Some might call it a third world country. There are 70 million people here, and if you’re in the middle, your income is 7,000 baht, which is about $215 a month. So it means that humour is probably the only thing that makes everyone feel better about themselves. We can mock everything. But we don’t only see the humour. We see the drama too. So that’s where the emotion comes from. That’s our life.”

Out of curiosity he worked for a spell in Shanghai, at Fred & Farid and then, naturally, at BBDO. But it’s clear that he missed the Thai approach, especially when working for multinational clients. “They’re spending a lot of money, so they don’t like to take risks. When you’re working for local clients, it’s easier to talk to them. Thai people are very emotional, so they understand. You can say about an idea, ‘I’m not feeling anything, man. And if I’m not feeling it, nobody is going to feel it.’ Then you work together to elevate the idea.”

In short, he says, he needed the “spiciness” of Thai advertising. “Doing something every day that I’m proud of, that’s what I long for. So I had to come back to Thailand. And right now I’m super proud of what I do.”

Awards and rewards

Pete has been multiply awarded, of course – notably by our own Epica Awards, for this blockbuster (see how many movie references you can spot) for Five Star Chicken.

When his team won a Grand LIA for “Death of A Salesman”, plus three golds and a silver, he had tears in his eyes. “I was there at the time, and I was crying like a baby. It’s been very tough this year, economy wise. So I was proud of my team.”

He says that awards enable him to judge himself. “Awards are a bar for creativity, so you know where your benchmark is, you know where your competitor is at the moment, and you have to reach for that bar.”

He mentions with a smile that the office at BBDO Bangkok looks like the other kind of bar. “If you want someone to come to an office now, it has to be Instagrammable, right? You want to take a picture that’s like, ‘I’m sitting here, look how awesome it is.’ So we made a bar, and everyone wanted to come back to the office after the pandemic.”

Not your average side hustle

Like many creative people, Pete flexes his talent outside his job. Recently, a famous Thai musician who’d returned to the music industry after an absence of 15 years asked for his help promoting a song. Pete offered to direct the music video – something he’d never done before.

“It had been a while since I’d directed anything. I’m always sitting behind the director, trying to improve what I see on the screen. But I don’t have to control what people are wearing, how they do things, what they’re wearing, or the location. Except this time I did.”

The resulting video was a massive viral hit, making the singer a star all over again. “He said, ‘I made a comeback because of you!’ But I told him it was his song. The main thing I learned is that sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone is awesome.”

As for advertising, he believes now is a great time to work in the industry. “For a while people thought advertising was cool, so it became a bit mainstream. But it’s no longer the case. Which is good, because I’ve never liked anything mainstream. I prefer indie bands, you know? So this is a non-mainstream career – where there are plenty of opportunities to be yourself.”