On Wednesday, December 10, Dr. Sidharth (Sid) Muralidharan, Assistant Professor of Advertising in TAI, shared his research titled “Are we a product of our environment? Exploring culturally congruent green advertising appeals, novelty, and environmental concern in India and the United States.”
The Temerlin Advertising Institute established the monthly faculty Brown Bag lunch series in Fall 2012 to allow faculty in Advertising, Communication Studies and Journalism to share their research and encourage collaboration across disciplines.
TAI Celebrates SMU’s 2014 Homecoming Weekend Students and faculty from TAI’s MA in Advertising program celebrated SMU Homecoming by attending the annual parade on Bishop Boulevard. Afterwards they enjoyed free food and entertainment provided by the Meadows School of the Arts!
Arturo Lee, a 2014 graduate of the TAI Masters in Advertising program, is now working at Dieste, a Hispanic marketing agency in Dallas. He and a group of creatives at the agency recently put out a tribute to the great creatives in advertising. Read more about the project from Arturo:
“Los DeAD Men”: A Dia de Muertos Tribute to some of the greatest creative minds.
“Ever since my graduation from TAI I have been fortunate enough to work at Dieste. Dieste is a USH full service agency that handles clients like Cricket Wireless, AT&T, Goya Foods, and Hershey’s.
It should come as no surprise just how important Dia de los Muertos is for a Hispanic agency, so to commemorate this great holiday, a few of the creatives came up with the idea to pay tribute to some of the greatest creative minds in the industry.
By creating caricature gifs, some of the industry’s figureheads came to life as their very own Catrinas (skull paintings). Each of these gifs were then mounted on their very own Tumblr and shared throughout social media.
The tribute turned out to be a great success as many of the people honored (along with their agencies), retweeted and shared the work online. It was a truly amazing experience to get a chance to work on something so unique and that involved many famous names like David Droga, Gerry Graf and Marcelo Serpa.”
Film Major and Advertising Minor, senior Ben Ohene
Ben Ohene is a film production major and advertising minor at Southern Methodist University. The senior is a transfer from the University of Texas at Arlington and began his journey at SMU in the fall of 2013. Ben is a first-generation Ghanaian-American and is the eldest of three children. Ohene is the vice president of communications for the Student Filmmakers Association at SMU and has interests in writing, photography, fashion, animation, the digital arts, outdoor sports, and culinary preparation. He is a member of SMU’s rugby club as well as an Eagle Scout and an American Red Cross volunteer. Additionally, he is an aspiring screenwriter and cinematographer whose plan is to enter the film industry after graduation in May of 2015.
Ben was awarded this year’s Meadows Exploration Award grant in the amount of $1,000 for his documentary film, Threads. Threads explores the psyche and rationale of university students in the United States when it comes to their daily fashion choices and the judgments that are passed on one another based on attire. Clothing is a form of non-verbal communication – the way that we dress ourselves depends on our personalities, emotions, and the cultures that we were raised in. Threads will be released during the spring of 2015.
About: The Meadows Exploration Awards offer undergraduate students the opportunity to do something truly amazing through art. Designed to promote independent research and creative exploration, the awards are available to any Meadows undergraduate student with an approved idea and a faculty sponsor. Past award recipients have choreographed new works; written and performed music; created art, films and TV programs; worked on political campaigns; delved into research; embarked on national and international trips; and participated in performances.
On October 22, 2014 TAI’s Ad Club held a resume workshop and interview prep event. Students brought their resumes and sipped hot cocoa or coffee while learning valuable resume and interview tips from five professors with specialties in accounts, media and creative fields in advertising. Faculty attending the event included, Dr. Carrie La Ferle giving advice on Accounts; Professor Willie Baronet providing Creative advice; Professor Gordon Law- Media; Professor Bruce Orr– Accounts; and Professor David Hadeler– Accounts. An interesting and productive night was had by all.
Students and Professors at Resume and Interview Workshop
Jim Goodnight, founding Director of the Temerlin Advertising Institute at Southern Methodist University, was inducted on Tuesday, October 21, 2014 into the AAF’s Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame. Jim’s career spans some 37 years in marketing communications beginning at BBDO and traveling on to other agencies with clients such as Southwest Airlines, Pepsi, Scott Paper, Hormel, and many more serviced along the way.
Dr. Steve Edwards, current Director of the Temerlin Advertising Institute, along with faculty members, staff and students, all were present to honor Jim on this wonderful occasion. Southern Methodist University’s President Gerald Turner was also present along with Dr. Sam Holland, Interim Dean of Meadows School of the Arts.
Everyone had a great time and Jim gave an inspiring speech urging advertisers to do more for the brands they represent and for our profession by implementing the motto of the Temerlin Advertising Institute: Better Advertising. Better World. Watch Jim’s full speech below.
Second year MA in Advertising students, Erin, Morgan, Rachel, Kirk and David, spent their lunch on Tuesday with AAF Dallas for their annual Emerging Technologies Showcase and Luncheon. The keynote speaker was Steve Deitz, President and Creative Director of 900lbs of Creative. He discussed what his company has been doing in experiential marketing. Through a collage of great examples, Steve was able to show how a stronger connection between technology, people and brands can occur using experience based marketing. A nice time was had by all and it was a great chance for faculty members to also catch up with previous students of the TAI program who are now industry professionals.
Matthew Lee, undergraduate Advertising and Computer Science double major at SMU
Matthew Lee, a current SMU undergraduate Advertising and Computer Science double major, recently created a device called the Zombie Tube, a tennis ball pressurizer. TAI caught up with Lee to learn more about his entrepreneurial efforts.
How did you come up with the idea for the Zombie Tube? After a long day of practice with my doubles partner, we always had a ritual to see who can launch the dead tennis ball the farthest. After knocking several balls into the unknown with my partner, it dawned upon me how many tennis balls are wasted. Curious, I decided to walk into the small forest behind the tennis club and to my surprise, the forest floor was completely covered in tennis balls that were mostly dead. Since tennis balls have a limited lifespan and cannot be used again after its life is over, I created Zombie Tube so it can revive dead tennis balls back to the quality of new tennis balls. This process is repeatable for infinite use, so the tennis ball’s overall life is extended until the ball itself is physically destroyed (which is really hard to do).
What are your plans to advertise the Zombie Tube? Since advertising requires a large amount of financial capital, I need to make use of free forms of advertising to promote my product. I plan on doing personal selling or using YouTube and social media sites to help gain some attention. Hopefully if my product gains lots of popularity through my initial free forms of advertising, in the future I plan on doing paid magazine and websites ads that have a large tennis consumer base.
What are your long-term plans in the field of advertising? Ever since I took Survey of Advertising at SMU, I have a strong understanding of what I need to do in order to help a product gain awareness and I learned the process of how advertising can win over consumers. With these general ideas, I applied my knowledge and made sure my product had the right color scheme, target audience, advertising plan, and flexibility for future marketing strategies. Overall, I plan on getting a BA in Advertising because I really want to further my understanding of this major and I see how this major can have strong an impact on businesses and consumers.
TAI congratulates Lee on his Zombie Tube invention and wishes him the best of luck! To learn more about or purchase the Zombie Tube, visit: http://savethetennisballs.com/.
On April 29, the Temerlin Advertising Institute, along with other SMU communication disciplines and the help of the Hegi Family Career Development Center of SMU, hosted a Job Fair. Almost 30 employers attended and many students secured interviews for internships and permanent positions. Thank you to all of the employers and the work of TAI faculty, staff and students for helping to make this a great event for everyone.
On May 1, 2014 faculty members of the Temerlin Advertising Institute presented an overview of the advertising profession and the Institute to students from Summit International Preparatory. Approximately 150 6th graders visited SMU for the day. The students were very polite and engaging with a ton of great comments, questions, and ideas.
A former SMU-TAI graduate, Haynes Strader spearheaded the visit. We are so excited that our alumni feel proud of their roots and want to bring shining stars to visit SMU to ignite interest in our university and the TAI program.
On Wednesday, December 10, Dr. Sidharth (Sid) Muralidharan, Assistant Professor of Advertising in TAI, shared his research titled “Are we a product of our environment? Exploring culturally congruent green advertising appeals, novelty, and environmental concern in India and the United States.”
“Los DeAD Men”
