Another well-traveled creative director has left the big-name agency world…but this time it’s not to go client-side or work with startups.
Peter Moore Smith, a creative veteran of the Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis and BBDO organizations (who also happens to be the brother of actress Julianne Moore), has signed with production company Aero Films as its newest director.
Smith has spent more than 20 years in the agency world, with the last four as an EVP/ECD at Saatchi & Saatchi New York running all creative on the General Mills account in addition to Walmart and Duracell. (His campaign “The Talk,” created to promote Harlem-based youth development organization Brotherhood/Sister Sol, won several major awards this year.)
Before joining Saatchi, he spent three and a half years in the same role with the Publicis organization in New York; his previous agency experience included a whopping 14 years as a creative director at BBDO New York, where he worked on VISA, Pepsi, GE and FedEx. Moore also encountered his new employers–Aero partners founders Skip Short and Lance O’Connor–while with BBDO.
O’Connor says,”When we got the first script from Peter for VISA, Klaus and I were blown away by the caliber of writing. We knew we were dealing with a real talent. He’s the ultimate storyteller. Performance is his strong suit and we couldn’t be more proud to have him in the Aero family.”
Moore, who is also a novelist and screenwriter, calls directing a natural next step in his career, writing:
“The more time I spent on a production, the more I realized I wanted to stay in that environment. I started making commercials at BBDO where I was really encouraged to be part of the production process, and get really involved with the director. So ultimately, I wanted to do it myself.”
He adds, “Generally, directors come from a film background and may not know the politics of advertising. I hope that with what I’ve learned during my time in advertising, I can be helpful with that and successfully navigate through the process.”
Aero, which is based in Santa Monica with offices in New York and Munich, calls itself a “global powerhouse” and lists ASICS, Pepsi, Activision, Ford, U.S. Navy, Audi and Samsung among the clients for which it has produced campaigns.