Chris Petescia

After launching a business during my final semester at RIT, I evolved it through the age of websites and digital communities to what would become Social Media, and then into the larger world of digital marketing, culminating in a full-service ad agency in Brooklyn, NY. During those 13 years, it blossomed, thrived, was acquired, and launched a series of incredible experiences and relationships that have continued to define my professional life as a passionately fan-oriented partner to my continuing clients.

1.  How do you use Applied Critical Thinking in your professional practice, teaching, or research, and what are your favorite resources?

In my practice—which spans global luxury brands, B2B manufacturing, and startup consumer products (and everything in between)—I treat critical thinking as the essential partner to empathy. To solve problems effectively, I have to look plainly at a situation and inhabit the audience’s lived experience. Why might they care (or not)? What are their actual needs? Is there an honest match between those needs and the product or service? For me, thinking critically is the inverse of being impulsive. It’s a deliberate process of "matchmaking" where I translate a value proposition into something that resonates emotionally with the end recipient, while remaining stripped of non-essential agendas. Regarding resources, I find the most valuable "tool" is listening – and actually “hearing.” A lot can be learned by setting aside assumptions and observing what is both said (opinion) and demonstrated.

2. Why do you think Applied Critical Thinking is important in your domain or role?

We live in an era where people often act on emotional impulses without rationale. This exists even on the client side and can manifest as wanting something simply because they "want it," regardless of whether it serves the business challenge. Critical thinking allows me to deconstruct those impulses to find the real motivations and needs, and factor them into a more nuanced version of how “success” will ultimately be determined and judged. It’s important because it goes beyond the "math" or the numbers of a project—it’s about balancing all the variables, including the soft human needs that can either undermine or elevate a product’s success.

3. Can you share a story where quality Applied Critical Thinking was key to your success?

A great example was a 2023 project launching a client who had just obtained a highly coveted Disney Licensee. The opportunity to announce, premiere, and showcase this lifestyle bag brand to Disney audiences came with their selection to be the title sponsor of that year’s D23 Official Disney Fan Club event. The pieces of the puzzle were scattered. We had a product (bags featuring Disney Characters) that wasn’t inherently a new value proposition. The bags weren’t even available at the event, and a finite moment in time to capture enough enthusiasm, emotional investment, and excitement to carry through to a delayed purchase (not to mention influencing the anticipation of that larger fanbase not in immediate attendance). Critical thinking was required to navigate the needs of all stakeholders and realize that the true value proposition and sale for this moment was the story of the product and this brand’s journey to obtaining the opportunity to produce it. We shifted the focus from a flat transaction to a time-locked and exclusive experience of being in the room, leveraging the specialness of being present to share in excitement and joy. By considering the long-term interaction with the fans rather than just the bag itself, we turned a simple product launch into a meaningful moment that everyone—fans and business partners alike—viewed as a success. We couldn’t sell a single bag, so instead we sold a chance to champion them as participants in their story – and it worked. Three months later, when the bags dropped, they sold out across Disney World property in under 90 minutes.

4. How do you use Applied Critical Thinking in other areas of your life outside of your profession?

It’s less a tool I pick up and more of a persistent habit of mind. In a world where many lead an impulse-led existence, reacting immediately to every uncertainty, I try to exist as a responsible human with a bit more intentionality. Whether a situation is minute or significant, I apply the same approach: I look at challenges with curiosity rather than reacting with a "knee-jerk" response. It’s a pervasive part of how I negotiate the world— in plain speak, I am very self AND other-aware, and engage with my surroundings with a bit more thoughtfulness than the average person might.

5. Any last critical thoughts you wish to share?

I believe curiosity is the ultimate champion of critical thinking, while assumption is the antithesis. Humans are naturally wired to take the shortest (often laziest) route to an answer, which is why we are so easily influenced by agendas today. Take web search results: we used to seek answers thoughtfully through reviewing a series of results, whereas now we accept a short summary more often than not. Without a genuine, active curiosity to look past what is immediately shown to us, critical thinking dies. In an AI-driven and heavily influenced world, active and deliberate discernment is a “harder” choice we have to make every day.