Any top creative who submits as their official juror photo a picture of themselves inside a washing machine is the sort of juror we like at The Caples.
Thasorn ‘Pete’ Boonyanat has won rather a lot of awards at The Caples in recent years so it’s a pleasure as well as an honor to have him on Laura JB’s jury this year.
We recently caught up with him for a conversation with the award-winning Chief Creative Officer at BBDO Bangkok.
You’re a Chief Creative Officer with all the pressure that the job entails. What do you do as a counterbalance to the demands of your workplace?
For the record, I don’t have a side-hustle. But I do love writing songs and shooting both movies and music videos.
If you hadn’t ended up in advertising, what would you be doing instead?
I’d have become a film director or a musician.
In your career, what one piece of personal work are you most proud of?
The work I’ve done for TCP. It’s a film I made by myself as a gift to my client, who, in the pandemic, cancelled all the work I’d done. It looks like it’s going to be me complaining but I actually thank him for what he’s done because the media budget was diverted to help purchase the first COVID-19 testing machine in Thailand and some 100,000 face masks for health workers.
The film became one of the most viral ads of 2020, with zero budget and zero spend in PR.
The story became the most read article in 2022 from Campaign Asia. Here it is in AdAge
What work has your agency/team produced you’re particularly proud of?
The work we have done this year at BBDO Bangkok for Five Star, ‘The Movies Made (From) Us’; Johnson’s ‘The Other Mother’s Day’ and ‘This Commercial Doesn’t Understand You At All’; Tourism Authority of Thailand’s ‘Write your New Chapter’; the Thai Health Promotion Authority work ‘The Experimental’; and more.
I’m super proud of it all. But if you want me to name just one thing, then it is the creative culture that I am building here. The people are getting better and better every day. Seeing them grow as good creatives makes me feel so proud.
What recent work have you seen from another agency (or agencies) that you would really like to see entered into The Caples? And why?
Netflix ‘The Eyeballs Heist’ from Wunderman Thompson, which is the best OOH so far from Thailand this year.
Are awards important?
Not as much as winning over consumers’ hearts but, yes, they are important.
What does it mean to you to be a juror of The Caples Awards in 2023?
I’m glad to be a part of John Caples’ legacy.
The Caples is free to enter. Is this brave? Or very, very stupid?
This is how every awards show should be, isn’t it?
If you could have five creative luminaries sitting around your kitchen table, having a drink and a chat, who would they be? What do you think you’d talk about?
Great question. I would like to pick David Lubars (he is a phenomenon); Dan Wieden (because he’s so inspiring); Pablo del Campo (the legendary creative from Argentina); Nadja Lossgott (AMV BBDO London) and Juan Cabral (amazing creative and director of Cadbury ‘Gorilla’ etc). We would talk about the music and the movies we love and drink freely on the beautiful beaches of Phuket.
Impossible question. But what is your one all-time favourite piece of advertising, the idea you most wish you’d done yourself?
DB Export’s ‘Brewtroleum’. I actually had the same idea but my client at the time did not have the same courage or vision as the DB client. I wish I could have made it happen, damn!
