Chris Graves ‘77 Returns to Give Assembly

Christopher Graves ‘77 delivered a humorous and educational assembly on Friday, May 12. As the president and founder of the Ogilvy Center for Behavioral Science, Graves largely attributes his success to his time at Exeter and his experience at the Harkness table.

Graves came to Phillips Exeter in 1973 on a scholarship. “I grew up in the ghetto, in low income projects,” he explained. “I was really rescued by [the] scholarship, because honestly, in a parallel universe, I don’t know what would have happened.” According to Graves, the project had to be torn down because of its poor conditions. “I grew up in a really rough and bad area and was catapulted into Exeter where people didn’t care what my income background was,” he said.

Graves appreciated the fact that many Exonians did not pry into his financial aid status, as this allowed him to focus on the academic aspects of the school. “What helped me for the rest of my life was developing a really aggressive curiosity,” Graves said. “A big part of that was living at the Harkness table.”

After graduating from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1977, Graves attended Wesleyan University, where he studied film. The American Film Institute honored one of his short films in college, encouraging Graves to continue his pursuit of film. After graduation, however, Graves joined the news industry, which he continued in for around 20 years, although his true passion remained film

Currently, Graves works for Ogvily and Mather, which is one of the largest, oldest advertising communications companies. “It’s in the series, Mad Men; it’s the one they constantly are jealous of,” Graves said. “I was CEO in Asia, and then CEO for Ogilvy Public Relations in Asia and then Global CEO and then Global Chairman.”

While he did not receive a formal education in biology or science, Graves became passionate about behavioral science later on in life, like a “good Harkness student,” he said. As an advertising CEO, he was concerned about the lack of scientific research on influencing commercial consumers. “I started doing a deep dive and what I discovered was a giant gap that the world of public relations and advertising [had]: while they used research, they didn’t really look at or understand behavioral science,” Graves said. He defined behavioral science as behavioral economics, social psychology, evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience and narrative theory.

While previous “common sense” advertising principles said that consumers who are introduced to new evidence can change their minds, Graves found that behavioral science proved otherwise. “The science shows that when someone holds a belief, and you show them evidence that they may be wrong, the evidence backfires; it makes the person possibly angry, and certainly they dig in, but it doesn’t suddenly make them change their mind,” he said.

Graves was excited to apply this science in order to make his advertising firm more effective in their efforts, using the technique of narrative transportation. “If you look at another sliver of behavioral science related to storytelling, called narrative transportation, you can learn how to change somebody’s mind through narrative and by triggering something called mirror neurons which go back to the primal roots of our brains,” he said.

Upper Greg Miller, who attended the luncheon, praised Graves for his intellect and his willingness to explore his passions. “He’s smart, [he] really knows his stuff, and he does a lot of research,” Miller said. “I was actually kind of surprised about it—here’s a guy who’s worked at the number one ad firm in New York and now he decides he wants to go into neuroscience.” Miller enjoyed speaking with Graves about his work on advertising campaigns, and asked him how to be successful in the business. “He responded, ‘Be a woman.’ That stuck,” Miller said.

Upper Peter O’Keefe, also in attendance, enjoyed Graves’ Harkness-style discussion at the luncheon. “I liked that Mr. Graves, in true Harkness style, allowed students to do the vast majority of the talking,” O’Keefe said. “We covered the broad question of what happens when there is no independent source of truth, and we moved on more specifically to talk about people’s view on climate change.”

Upper Matt Alburn also liked being able to contribute to the dialogue. “What struck me most was how he seemed to embody the Harkness discussion method,” he said. “Not only was he well prepared to answer our very specific and sometimes daunting questions involving economics, human behavior and morals, but he acknowledged that his were not the perfect answers; he answered every question by looking at it from several perspectives.”

Alburn felt as though he took away much from the talk; particularly, he acquired greater knowledge about marketing, behavioral analysis, morality and sociology. He highlighted Graves’ extensive familiarity with every aspect of his field. “He kept bringing up all sorts of different studies done by different universities before discussing their relevance, motivations and results,” Alburn said.

While reflecting on his time at Exeter, Graves credited the Harkness teaching method as the most valuable thing he took away from the experience. “I think that Harkness done right is not just a lecture around an oval table,” Graves said. “Many schools get it wrong because they think they’re doing Harkness by just putting in an oval table, but it’s actually the pedagogy, the approach, the methodology that’s the most important part of that, and that serves you well for the rest of your entire life... every situation you’re in, it makes you much more driven, curious and self sufficient. I think it’s helpful at every level.”

Alburn commended Graves for his wisdom and character, saying, “I truly believe that Mr. Graves set a shining example of what Exonians can and should be, even years after leaving Exeter.”