Wednesday, September 21, Temerlin Advertising Institute, joined with AAF Dallas and 4A’s, hosted an event called “Broccoli for Breakfast.” The event offered breakfast to all attendees and a guest speaker Clark Rector, EVP Government Affairs for AAF, and his lecture “A Targeted Industry in an Unpredictable Political Environment.”
Speaker Clark Rector at the podium.
As the EVP Government Affairs for AAF, Rector is in charge of the grassroots lobbying efforts of the AAF and its’ members. They have been successful in defeating ad tax proposals and other threats to the advertising industry in Congress.
Many industry professionals, including various TAI professors, made their way to the SMU campus to hear Rector speak about the effects of politics on the advertising industry and what the advertising community can do to get involved.
“I really enjoyed Clark’s speech about the role of advertising in our local and national economy,” TAI Professor Eunjin (Anna) Kim said. “As he said, people think [about] advertising negatively, such as advertising promotes materialism, ignores fundamental needs but creates unnecessary desires, and deceives consumers. It’s not easy for us to think about positive side of advertising, even for me. As an advertising faculty, I can say, ‘well advertising provides information, educates consumers, and even sometimes is entertaining.’ But that’s all that I can think of. I haven’t really thought about the economic role of advertising. It creates millions of jobs and boosts sales, representing 15% of the total economic output in the State. Advertising indeed pays a vital role in our society, just like the event name, ‘Broccoli for Breakfast’!”
Attendees in the Martha Mack Proctor Ballroom at SMU.
TAI is passionate about staying informed on all current topics in the advertising industry, hosting guest speakers periodically throughout the year.
Rarely do students get the chance to work everyday on the set of one of their favorite television shows. But this summer TAI Creative Advertising student Jackson Foley had that opportunity. Foley worked as a Production Intern at “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.”
Like many other internships, Foley applied for this position online, through the CBS intern portal. Once he was chosen as a possible candidate for the job, he flew up to New York twice to interview.
“I learned in the process when applying for any job in creative production,” Foley said, “you will always be told when [and] if you got the job on the very last possible day they can tell you. In my case, that was the beginning of May, which gave me two weeks to find a place to live and move everything up there.”
Foley on the set of “The Late Show”
A typical day on the job, if there really was one, involved arriving at the studio at 9am to coordinate with productions managers on the schedule for the day and prepare all the necessary papers and memos for the morning product meeting. After the meeting, Foley would work as a talent assistant or help with a digital shoot for the cold-open until 2pm. Then he would coordinate the progress of the script and print a finalized version for the rehearsal, along with a shot list. He would then run the shot lists to each camera and production staff, and deliver scripts to Stephen Colbert and the executive producers. At 3pm, he would watch rehearsal and then work on production tasks until 4pm, when he would run scripts again—now with the live audience in the theater. Foley would watch the show to make sure nothing in the script was incorrect or troublesome, and then work on digital shoots until 9pm.
“I worked predominately with the production side of the show, so stage managers, production coordinators, show runners and producers,” Foley said. “[Essentially] if the writers are the brain of a TV show, the script manager/runner is the nervous system that delivers the messages to each person that works on the show. Each day I mainly worked as a script manager or digital production assistant.”
Aside from running the scripts every day, Foley had a few more personal interactions with Stephen Colbert throughout the internship.
Foley standing in for a sketch on the show.
“I was a stand in for a sketch between Stephen and Bryan Cranston, where they acted like villains from a 1920s movie,” Foley said, “and got to speak with him briefly while the set was being finalized. At the end of the internship, he held a ‘seminar’ in a small room for around an hour where we could ask him anything we wanted to know, and he was honestly one of the smartest yet nicest people I’ve ever had the privilege to talk to.”
Foley’s favorite memories from his internship include special live shows “The Late Show” did during both political conventions this summer. Through this internship he realized something very important about his future career aspirations.
“Getting to see how each night came together was extremely satisfying,” Foley said. “From getting to see the writers bring in an actor look-alike for Melania Trump for the Republican Convention, to meeting and talking with John Stewart during the Democratic Convention. Working with ‘The Late [Show]’ really helped me discover my love for working at a place where each day is something entirely different from the day before, as well as how much I want to work in an industry that makes content people can laugh at and ultimately connect with.”
Foley attributes a lot of his internship success to skills he learned in his Advertising courses.
“Understanding how media buying and partnerships work was an incredibly helpful skill for helping set up a partnership between the show and Giphy,” Foley said. “Also, knowing how to layout information in an easy-to-understand [and] aesthetically pleasing way helped me get noticed while making posters/documents internally for the show, which led to a couple of conversations that got me more important [and] interesting jobs.”
Foley also learned some incredibly important lessons that serve as good advice to anyone working in a new position.
Foley with his fellow interns at “The Late Show”
“In all honesty, what I learned the most from the internship is to always be up for ‘boring’ or ‘uninteresting’ jobs,” Foley said. “I was one of fourteen interns, half of which went to Ivy League schools, the other half being those with actual production experience, and the best way I became noticed was by doing the tasks that most didn’t clamor to have. Through that, I was given more and more jobs with increased importance, like costume runs or script deliveries, and eventually served as an interim writer’s assistant during the Live Shows. To make it short: Want to be noticed in a pool of talented [and] interesting people? Be proactive, even when you don’t have to be.”
On Monday, September 12, first-year TAI Creative Advertising students in Professor Mark Allen’s Concepting class were given an opportunity that many students will never get – to show their work to multiple industry professionals and get feedback from people who are currently working in the field.
Professor Allen calls it “Speed-Dating Critique.” Each professional is stationed at a separate table to speak one-on-one with the students, who will each have a stack of 50-60 concept sketches loosely organized by similar concepts and themes. Students spend roughly ten minutes with at least three to four different professionals throughout the class period, receiving feedback on which of their ideas are most promising.
Professor Allen’s Concepting class during “Speed-Dating Critique.”
“I do this event twice every semester,” Professor Allen said. “But this time the response from the local advertising community has been overwhelming—we typically have 4-5 professionals volunteer to review work, but this time I [had] 14-16!”
Some of the professionals who participated in the critique include: Steve Grimes, Creative Director (CD) at The Richards Group; Shelby Tamura, Art Director (AD) at The Richards Group; Dr. Ben Wyeth, Copywriter at The Richards Group and SMU Adjunct Professor; Randall Kenworthy, Freelance Copywriter; Greg Hunter, Group Creative Director (GCD) and Principal at Firehouse; Julie Bowman, Senior CD at Slingshot; Jose Benitez, Senior Copywriter at Dieste; Arturo Lee, AD at Dieste; Jason Shipp, GCD at Moroch and SMU Adjunct Professor; Matt Villanueva, Associate Creative Director at Moroch; and Matt Lindner, Copywriter at Moroch.
“I gained some priceless advice after talking with industry professionals during Concepting,” sophomore TAI student Jolie Guz said. “I still cannot believe that in my third week in the Creative program, we were able to put our work in front of art directors and copywriters from The Richards Group, Moroch and more. I am looking forward to being able to meet more and more Dallas area creatives during my time in Temerlin!”
Several of these advertising professionals are alums of TAI, having attended SMU for their undergraduate and/or graduate degrees. Having successful professionals visit an undergraduate class to provide input on student work is an incredible experience. However, having successful professionals who were once in your exact same position (in the same program at the same school) is an invaluable experience, providing students with even more motivation and confidence to be successful in their careers after graduation.
The Temerlin Advertising Institute offers students the opportunity to earn a BA in Advertising while specializing their knowledge in one of three key industry areas: Creative, Digital Media Strategy, and Strategic Brand Management. The major is designed to provide students with the optimal blend of theory and practice. Learn more about the major and specializations here.
2016 Exxon Mobil Lecture Announced for Thursday, April 21st.
A free public lecture that brings together faculty, students, SMU alumni, and the DFW advertising community around an important marketing communication issue.
Reception starts at 6 pm. Lecture begins at 7 pm. Self parking on Bishop Blvd.
Karissa Jobman is the Spring 2013 recipient of two major awards namely the IES Abroad Leadership and Community Involvement Scholarship and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.
IES Abroad Leadership and Community Involvement Scholarship is open to students in any major who have demonstrated leadership and/or commitment in such areas as social service, student government, politics, or community development/welfare. The scholarship covers the cost of a student’s overseas study with the IES Abroad Buenos Aires – Latin American Societies and Cultures program for Spring 2013. The IES Abroad Merit-Based Scholarship program is very competitive. In this term alone, approximately 500 applicants competing in 20 different scholarship categories were received and only 12% of applicants received an award.
The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program offers grants for U.S. citizen undergraduate students of limited financial means to pursue academic studies abroad. The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program is funded through the International Academic Opportunity Act of 2000 and is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. During the Spring 2013 application cycle, the Gilman Scholarship Program reviewed more than 2,600 applications for just over 1,000 awards.
