It is no secret that Tom Bodett's distinctive voice and ad-libbed "we'll leave the light on for you" helped put the Motel 6 chain on the proverbial maps of travelers across America. What many people are not familiar with is the advertising agency that approached Bodett in the first place: The Richards Group, a Texas-based ad agency that has compiled a very reputable list of clients.

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	Chris Smith is a creative group head for The Richards Group.

Chris Smith joined The Richards Group eight years ago and currently serves as a creative group head for the company. As a creative group head, Smith has a group of art directors and copywriters who report to him, while he guides them and helps make their products better.

"The story I always like to tell is that my job as a creative is 'Every day, I have a baby that's an idea,'" Smith said. "I go to a meeting, and I put that baby on the table, and 12 people hit it with sticks. My job as a writer is to come up with the baby, and my job as a creative director is to help keep it alive and help it survive the meeting and the process thereafter—the many more stick beatings that are to come."

Smith received his B.A. in Advertising from Penn State in 1994. He said that he always wanted to write and be creative. He attended Penn State in hopes of pursuing a journalism career. However, after a semester or two, he realized that students with that major were usually discouraged from making things up, so he switched to advertising. People may be surprised to find out that Smith also received a second degree—a B.A. in History.

"What's funny is that I use the history major probably as much as the advertising major because the main thing you do as a history major is read and then write. So you read an awful lot, and you read a lot of good writing, and then you have to synthesize all those thoughts into a paper. So that's actually where I learned to write—more so than the advertising degree," Smith said.

Smith started his career at MBRK, a small advertising firm in Dallas, and worked there from 1994 to 1997. In 1997, MBRK was bought out by The Evans Group, which was bought out by Publicis in 1998.

Smith stayed at the firm for a few months after the buyout but quickly realized it was not a good fit. He had always wanted to work for The Richards Group, he said, so he called up a friend who was working there, got an interview with company founder Stan Richards in January 1999, and subsequently got the job. He became a group head in 2005.

Smith said that his desire to work for The Richards Group stemmed from a creative class he took in college. During class, the professor would show reels from various production companies and agencies. When the day came for the professor to show a reel from The Richards Group, one of the Motel 6 reels was selected.

Pictured here with Tom Bodett, Smith said the Motel 6 campaigns were what really inspired him to pursue advertising.

According to Smith, the ad was for the 1-800-4-Motel-6 number and featured Tom Bodett reading off the number in his own distinctive way. He said that the ad was so simple, yet so bizarre, and that something clicked inside him; he wanted to do ad campaigns like that.

Now, years later, his wish has come true. He inherited the Motel 6 ad campaign five years ago. Having started when he was just in seventh grade, the campaign is now in its 20^th year. It has gone through several writers and several different creative directors but still remains true to its roots.

"It's kind of the campaign that put this agency on the map," Smith said. "It's really just a ton of fun and a big honor to be the guy in charge of it now."

Other clients that Smith has worked for with The Richards Group include jewelry retailer Zales, dairy farm Shamrock Farms, Chick-fil-A, Red Lobster, Home Depot, and Bennigan's.

In terms of the future of advertising, Smith said that the agencies will definitely have to start taking a more nontraditional approach in order to be successful, particularly by using content as advertising via media like YouTube and product placement. He said that, in his opinion, ubiquitous branding is best; it is not intrusive, but "it just sort of fits and makes perfect sense."

Q. What do you do for fun? A. Working at the comedy club is a lot of fun. I read nonstop, whether it's books or magazines or lefty political blogs. And teach my kids heavy metal songs. Q. What CD is in your CD player right now? A. For a benefit concert coming up that we do through the Home Depot, I have formed a goofy, 80s metal hair band, a tribute band. So I've got a CD in there of all the songs that we are going to be playing so I can remember them and try and learn the words, because I haven't sung those since I was in high school, and it's a lot harder after puberty to hit some of those notes. Q. What is the last magazine you read? A. That is a tie between this week's New Yorker and Dwell. Q. What is your favorite book? A. My favorite book of all time is All Quiet on the Western Front. From what I have read recently, I read a really good book not too long ago called The Mezzanine. Q. What is your favorite TV show? A. Currently, I am hooked on Rome and basically anything on HBO on Sunday nights. It was Deadwood, but now I am hooked on Rome; Entourage, which is starting up; and The Sopranos. I am a huge fan of Extras, which is Ricky Gervais's show, the guy who did The Office. This is his newer show. I really like The Office and Bill Maher—Real Time with Bill Maher. Q. Who is your role model? A. Wynton Marsalis. He's an amazing trumpet player, jazz historian, pioneer, and educator, and he always presents himself with class and authenticity. He totally lives his craft, and I dig it.

One of the best advertising campaigns Smith has seen is the Mini Cooper campaign. The campaign, which Smith called "really clever stuff," featured nontraditional guerilla campaigns with ads depicting the small car riding on top of a larger, more intrusive vehicle.

"Any time you can encounter advertising where you're totally not expecting it—you're expecting it on television, you're expecting it on radio, on billboards, whatever, but when you bump into it in the middle of the sidewalk or when you bump into it in the airport lavatory or whatever, you just weren't expecting it—that sticks with you," Smith said. "Most advertising is wallpaper, but if it's something that really catches you off-guard and makes you smile, then it stays with you and you like that product better."

Smith said that the best advice he ever got was from trombone player and jazz musician Doug Serdle, whom he took a class from. When asked if he listened to jazz, he told Serdle he did not, and Serdle replied, "You will never be a great jazz player."

Smith said that he realized something that day: if you really want to be great at what you do, you must immerse yourself in it. If you want to be great at it, you must study it and make it your hobby.

He encourages those who want to pursue advertising careers to subscribe to magazines pertaining to advertising and buy award annuals. He said they should take notes on what the major (and not-so-major) agencies are doing as well as collect ads they do and do not like in order to learn from them. Do not just TiVo through commercials, he said. Notice the nuances of the ads.

Currently, Smith resides in Dallas with his family, which consists of his wife and three young children (a three-and-a-half-year-old and two-year-old twins). He enjoys performing improv at local clubs. He also enjoys trivia, having written for the magazine Mental Floss and having appeared on Jeopardy, which he won twice.

On the net:

The Richards Group
www.richards.com

Penn State
www.psu.edu

Motel 6
www.motel6.com

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