VOLUME 4, ISSUE 5

March 2009

Advertising Students Experience Professional Portfolio Reviews


Students learn first-hand what it means to have your portfolio reviewed by a professional. Gary Doyle, creative director at Cramer-Krasselt, offered valuable advice.

In December, 18 advertising majors from Professor Peter Sheldon's Creative Concepts I class had their work critiqued by Gary Doyle, award-winning creative director at Cramer-Krasselt, based in Chicago.

The critique lasted three hours and the students were grateful for the professional opinion. Jill Fruhwirth '09 ADV said, "Getting your work critiqued by a top-notch creative director is invaluable--especially when their insight provides a different point of view than what you're used to and sheds some new light on work that maybe you've been struggling with."

Doyle has served as creative director on accounts such as Porsche, RH Donnelly, Nintendo, and McDonalds, during his career. His work has been recognized by the One Show, the New York Art Directors Club, the Andys, and the Effies. He also developed creative work for the Obama presidential campaign, including the tagline, "Yes, we can."

Matt Stuyck '09 ADV explained that preparing for the critique "was a great opportunity to build stronger friendships with classmates, as we depended on each other for support, humor, and honesty so that we could submit our best work."

In his blog on advertising, "100 Words or Less," Doyle wrote, "I taught this week at University of Illinois with Professor of Advertising (and Jesus of Cool) Peter Sheldon and a bunch of funny, smart, refreshingly unjaded, worried-about-finding-a-job students. I understand the worry. But with the ideas they had, and the unending avenues available now for expression of those ideas, it occurred to me that there's never been a better time to enter this industry. Never. There are more ways to advertise to people than anyone can keep up with. If you have ideas, it's like a candy store, and the best part is, nobody really knows enough to organize the merchandise."

Ryan Cwiklinski '09 ADV added about the experience, "Having a professional as talented as we did come in and critique our work was like having Tiger Woods correct your golf swing: He knows what he's talking about so you better take notes."

Dominican Republic Offers Students Ample Research Material


Advertising students get a tour of CDN, leading news network in the Dominican Republic.

In early January, 13 Advertising students, under the supervision of Professor William Berry, traveled to the Dominican Republic to participate in a field study for the ADV 400/590 course "Advertising Across the Borders: Consumerism in Neo Emerging Markets." Part of the Department of Advertising's winter study abroad curriculum, the course exposed students to the advertising environment in the Spanish-speaking Caribbean, by providing lectures and interactions with marketing and advertising industry professionals, local media producers and local university professors to provide them with depth, breadth, and perspective about persuasive consumer strategy and practice in a different geographic context.

"Distinctively characterized by a fusion of African, Spanish, French, and IndoCaribbean cultures, the D.R. was selected as the learning laboratory because it mirrors the multicultural terrain that has come to typify the United States and other global nation-states," Berry said. He explained that the setting helped the students to increase their knowledge and understanding about multinational issues in advertising and consumerism by observing and juxtaposing the Dominican and U.S. branding, merchandising and purchasing patterns and practices.

A nation ripe for advertising research, the Dominican Republic owns a dynamic consumer economy where its almost 10 million residents spend more than $22 billion yearly on everything from lawnmowers to washing machines to rice and beans to home computers to rum and even to McDonald's, Colgate, and Bud Light. Moreover, they learned that the Dominican Republic ranks 8th in the world in consumer expenditure growth at 17 percent, compared to China (#43 at 8 percent), Ireland (#87 at 4.04 percent), the U.S. (#91 at 3.86 percent), the Czech Republic (#119 at 2.33 percent), and Germany (#143 at 0.18 percent) among others.

At a variety of venues, students observed how middle class and upper middle class locals splurge on everything from designer fashions created by Dominican Republic native Oscar de la Renta, to local and global brands in the food court. In addition, by visiting barrios and "colmados" (convenience stores) students were able to produce data and develop insight and perspective concerning neighborhood lifestyle and business activities.

Students visited CDN (the equivalent to CNN) in the capital city Santo Domingo where they were hosted by anchorperson Elisa Mariot, who gave them a personal tour of the facilities allowing the students to observe and interact with professionals. They also attended a seminar at Forcadell Publicidad, the country's largest single-owned agency, where company founder Sergio Forcadell lectured on the practice of advertising in the Dominican Republic and its relationship to marketing, the agency structure, media buying and strategy, and creative aspects of the campaigns the company produces.

Ray Victor '95 MS ADV, who is currently enrolled in the ICR Ph.D. program specializing in advertising, accompanied the tour at CDN and assisted Dr. Berry with the translation.

After the capital, students traveled to Santiago to engage theories of Visual Pollution by observing and analyzing billboards, building signages, posters, placards on buses, neon, digital, special effects, and other forms of outdoor advertising. Students also researched food consumption behavior and cultural differences in Dominican restaurants, cafeterias and diners, as well as some global food chains.

The trip was not all hard work though. Students did get to enjoy the nightlife, and trips to the beach proved both relaxing and educational, as students observed, studied and documented consumerism and advertising, weaving their observations and findings into the course presentations.

"Alumni News" Seeks Contributors for Stories, Writing, and Photography

The semiannual College of Media newspaper, "Alumni News," is currently undergoing a transformation, and will debut a new issue in September 2009. We look forward to its unveiling and your response. Editor Sarah Dolinar, associate director for communications in the College, is seeking story ideas, contributing writers, and photographers from the alumni community. If you are interested, please submit your ideas and contact information to Sarah Dolinar.

Honors and Awards

Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation Grant will Boost Global Investigative Journalism Network
The College of Media has been awarded a $25,000 grant by the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation to develop an improved and dynamic website for the Global Investigative Journalism Network, a growing group of investigative journalism centers spread across six continents. The funds will provide online forums for discussions, digital working space, online training modules, and guidance for carrying out investigative stories.

Coordinated by Brant Houston, professor of journalism and John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism, the project will be a major boost to the Global Investigative Journalism Network's activities and to its influence in raising the standards of investigative journalism worldwide. The Network, co-founded by Houston in 2000, holds biannual conferences and currently has a small website that relies entirely on volunteer efforts.

"Our plan for the website will make it much easier for the centers and their members to share resources and online training, to find out about the latest digital techniques, and to develop and collaborate on important multinational investigative stories," said Houston.

Houston said members of the Network, which includes other Foundation grantees, are eager to contribute to the content of the website and to share cutting edge techniques.

"This website will allow the Network members to congregate on a daily basis to improve their practices instead of once every two years," he said.

Founded by Edith Kinney Gaylord, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation's mission is to invest in the future of journalism by building the ethics, skills, and opportunities needed to advance principled, probing news and information. Illinois was among 19 organizations nationwide to receive $1.27 million in grants from the Foundation to support journalism projects.

More on the awardees in The Oklahoman online newspaper, NewsOK: "Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation awards $1.27M in grants," February 12, 2009.

Around the College

Student-Alumni Interface in Chicago
This year's Student-Alumni Interface event held February 19 brought together more than 100 alumni and students at the I-Space Gallery in Chicago. Students took advantage of the casual setting to talk with alumni about their experiences in their own companies and "to ask all the questions they would be afraid to ask in an interview," explained Steve Hall '93 MS ADV, director of career services and lecturer in advertising. This popular event for Chicago-based alumni culminated a daylong agency tour arranged by Hall to give current students a chance to meet with alumni and professionals.

Journalism Career Night on Campus
Journalism Career Night proved a great success this year with more than 70 students attending. Students, ranging from freshman to senior, listened to valuable insights from a panel of eight journalism alumni. Panelists answered questions from facilitator Don Heimburger '69 JOURN, and then broke into small groups to answer questions directly from students. Karen Mellen '97 and Lisa Parro '01 both addressed questions regarding public relations careers. Matt Dietrich '87 and Dave Parro '01 spoke about careers in newspapers and new media, and Sarah Jindra '04 answered questions about radio jobs. Christina Peluso '06 talked about her experience in television, and Josh Schollmeyer '00 covered discussion of web publishing.


Christine Ewing '12 ADV shows off her winnings after successfully predicting faculty's Super Bowl ad picks.

Advertising Freshman Predicts Faculty's Favorite Super Bowl Spots
Christie Ewing '12 ADV won $50 and a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos by coming closest to predicting the top three consensus favorite ads of the 2009 Super Bowl as chosen by the Department of Advertising faculty. Ewing correctly selected Budweiser's "Clydesdale love story" as the #1 spot and predicted that the Doritos "crystal ball" spot would rank #3. It ranked as #2 on the faculty consensus. The third spot on the faculty list was the CareerBuilder.com "hate your job/punch a koala" commercial. Ewing said she figured the advertising faculty consensus would likely go with an icon as the number one spot. "The Budweiser love story was the best of those by far," she said. Ewing also added that none of her faculty predictions made her personal top three list.

Faculty and Staff News

Jabari Asim, scholar-in-residence in journalism and African American studies, has been selected to receive the 2009 Distinguished Cultural Award from the American Association of Blacks in Higher Education (AABHE). This award is given to those individuals whose body of work has documented the Black American experience. Asim also facilitated a conversation with NAACP Chair Julian Bond on February 25 as part of the Dr. Frances G. Carroll 2008-2009 Speaker Series, titled "Agents of Change," hosted by the Department of African American Studies.

Jason Chambers, assistant professor of advertising and communications, has had particular success with his recent book "Madison Avenue and the Color Line: African Americans in the Advertising Industry." AdAge.com featured an excerpt in the February 16, 2009, issue of the magazine. Also, editors at Advertising Age recently named the book as one of the most important ever written on marketing and media.


ICR hosted prominent International Communication and Alternative Media Scholar John Downing.

Cliff Christians, director of Institute of Communications Research and Sandage Professor, hosted prominent International Communication and Alternative Media Scholar John Downing on February 11. As a guest of the Institute of Communications Research, Downing lectured to the ICR Prosem on "Comparative Analysis of Media and War."

Robert Hays, emeritus associate professor of journalism, gave a reading of two of his books, "Circles in the Water" and "The Life and Death of Lizzie Morris," at the Illini Union Bookstore in February. Born in the wooded hill country of southern Illinois, Hays has spent most of his life in Illinois and South Carolina. At age 73, he still teaches journalism courses, and his student evaluations consistently rank him and his classes in the top ten percent among all faculty members on the Urbana campus. He is the author of four non-fiction books, two of which have been published in paperback editions, and editor of an anthology of short stories by other writers.

Brant Houston, professor of journalism and John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism, was selected to serve as a judge for the prestigious Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting by Geneva Overholser, director of USC Annenberg's School of Journalism. Houston served along with Len Downie, vice president at large of "The Washington Post;" Caesar Andrews, former executive editor, "Detroit Free Press;" Gilbert Bailon, editorial page editor, "St. Louis Post-Dispatch;" Sandra Mims Rowe, editor, "The Oregonian;" Sill, editor and senior vice president, "The Sacramento Bee;" and Paul Steiger, editor-in-chief, president and chief executive, "ProPublica." The $35,000 award, presented annually by the School of Journalism at USC Annenberg, honors the year's outstanding work in investigative journalism that led to direct results.

Brian Johnson, professor of journalism, presented "Coming to a Device Near You: The News!" at the University YMCA's Friday Forum on January 30. His talk covered how new technology is being utilized and underutilized by the news industry today.

Lisa Nakamura, professor of media studies, Asian American studies, and gender and women's studies, presented "Surveillance of Virtual Worlds" at the University YMCA's Friday Forum on February 27. She examined the history of digital profiling in virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft and discussed the possible impacts of such programs upon users and cultural diversity.

Kent Ono, professor of communications and Asian American studies, has recently published several articles. Along with Vincent Pham Ph.D. '11 COMM, he published "'Artful Bigotry & Kitsch:' A Study of Stereotype, Mimicry, and Satire in Asian American T-Shirt Rhetoric," the journal, Representations: Doing Asian American Rhetoric. With Joy Yang Jiao, he published "China in the U.S. Imaginary: Tibet, the Olympics, and the 2008 Earthquake" in Communication and Critical Cultural Studies 5. In January, he gave a talk titled, "Remnants of a Colonial Past: Remembering and Forgetting Colonialism in Contemporary Visual Culture," at the Center for Critical Inquiry at University of North Carolina Greensboro.

Jay Rosenstein, associate professor of journalism, debuted a newly re-edited version of his PBS documentary "The Amasong Chorus Singing Out" on WILL-TV in late January. The award-winning documentary, which details the formation and growth of Champaign's lesbian/feminist chorus Amasong, was originally broadcast on the national PBS series "Independent Lens" in 2004, and was watched by an audience of more than one million viewers.

College Dean Ron Yates guest-hosted the February 16 airing of Focus 580 on WILL-AM 580, interviewing guests and taking calls on the topic, "Do Newspapers Have a Future?" His guests included John Foreman '77 JOURN, publisher and president of "The Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette" and News-Gazette Community Newspapers and director and past chairman of the Illinois First Amendment Center, and Mary Cory, publisher and general manager of the Illini Media Company.

Student News

Madelin Woods '09 ADV, working with several College of Media students and alumni, has founded the Champaign-Urbana Design Organization (CUDO). Partnering with local design firms, including Surface51, CUDO aims to provide an active, engaged, and vibrant designer community to professionals and students. More than 115 people atteneded CUDO's first meeting, which was covered by Champaign-Urbana's local online magazine "Smile Politely."

Jeremy Werner '09 JOURN won fourth place for college sports writing in the 49th annual William Randolph Hearst Foundation's Journalism Awards Program, in which 110 undergraduate journalism programs at colleges and universities across the nation are eligible to participate. Werner earned a $750 scholarship for his entry. The Awards Program is conducted under the auspices of accredited schools of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication, and fully funded and administered by the W.R. Hearst Foundation. It consists of six monthly writing, three photojournalism and four broadcast news competitions and one multimedia competition, with championship finals in all divisions except multimedia. The program awards up to $550,000 in scholarships and grants annually.

College of Media in the News

The University of Illinois student newspaper, The Daily Illini, honored outstanding members of the Urbana faculty in the February 24 issue. Included in the listing were Leon Dash, professor of journalism and Afro-American studies and Swanlund chair; Brant Houston, professor of journalism and John S. and James L. Knight Chair in Journalism; and Ron Yates, dean of the College of Media, professor of journalism and Tom and June Netzel Sleeman Professor in Business Journalism. Congratulations to all our outstanding faculty in the College of Media!

Upcoming Events

March 7, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Gregory Hall: College of Media Senior Saturday Career Day
In today's tough job market, graduating seniors need all the help they can get. College of Media seniors are invited attend the inaugural College of Media Senior Saturday. The all-day seminar will provide seniors with the necessary tools to find employment after college as well as insights into how to make themselves competitive in a very crowded marketplace. Industry expert, Murray Gaylord, Vice President of Marketing from "The New York Times," will discuss the state of the industry, and Brad Karsh, author of "Confessions of a Recruiting Director: The Insider's Guide to Landing Your First Job," will offer essential career advice. College of Media alumni and professionals will talk about jobs and provide resume and portfolio reviews. This event is specially designed for journalism, advertising, and media studies students. By attending this seminar, students will be ready to successfully jumpstart their careers. Registration: $25. Register online today!

April 10: Sixth Annual UI Communications Collaborative, UIS campus, Springfield
The sixth annual University of Illinois Communication Collaboration Conference is an academic forum where student researchers present their planned, in-progress, and finished work. This event also provides the opportunity for student researchers to interact with students and faculty from all three of the University of Illinois campuses. Email conference organizers for more information.

April 22-26: 11th Annual Roger Ebert's Film Festival, The Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park Ave.
Roger Ebert '64 JOURN, a Pulitzer Prize-winning acclaimed film critic, comes to Urbana-Champaign each spring for a week and hosts the festival. He selects a total of 12 to 14 films that represent a cross-section of important cinematic works "overlooked" by audiences, critics, and distributors. The films are screened in the 1,500-seat Virginia Theatre, a restored movie palace built in the 1920s. Mr. Ebert brings together the films, producers, writers, actors, and directors to help showcase these films. Following each screening, Mr. Ebert leads on-stage Q&A sessions with the guests for general audiences and critics. In addition to the screenings, the festival hosts a number of academic panel discussions featuring Mr. Ebert, festival guests, and academic scholars. The festival is a non-profit event of the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. More information at: www.ebertfest.com. Volunteers needed: please contact Mary Susan Britt.

Alumni Notes

Send your Alumni Notes, along with your hometown, to: media@illinoisalumni.org.

Notes are sorted by graduation year.

Mike Hilfrink '70 JOURN has been named general manager of "The Herald-Whig" in Quincy, Ill. A Quincy native, Hilfrink is the third generation of his family to work at "The Herald-Whig" having joined the staff in 1970. He left for a ten-year span to serve as state editor of "The Daily Dispatch" in Moline, and returned as managing editor in 1984.

Steven Rosenberg '74 JOURN responded to passing of College of Media Professor Glenn Hanson in his personal blog "The Rosenberg Report," with the February 5 entry, "Passing away of favorite professor."

Barry Bearak '75 MS JOURN and his wife Celia Dugger, were honored together with a 2009 George Polk Award for Career Achievement for their work in foreign reporting. Risking their lives to expose violence in Zimbabwe, Bearak was jailed for five days for illegal reporting, yet the pair continued to file stories describing the violence that shook the nation following disputed elections. Created in 1949 in honor of CBS reporter George W. Polk, who was killed while covering the Greek civil war, the Polk Awards are presented annually by Long Island University. They are considered among the top prizes in U.S. journalism. Bearak won a Pulitzer Prize in 2002 for reporting on international affairs, and in 2003 he was the University of Illinois Commencement speaker.

Douglas C. Gabbert '75 MS ADV has been named vice president for communications and marketing at Wofford College. Gabbert is a 33-year veteran of the marketing and advertising business, having begun his career at the J. Walter Thompson Co. in Chicago, where he worked on such brands as Sears, Gillette, Sara Lee, and Kimberly Clark. Most recently, Gabbert was vice president of Meridian Chiles marketing and advertising firm in Lexington, Ky. Gabbert and his wife, Mae Mae, have three children, adult twin daughters Pattie and Carolyn, and a son, Douglas, who is a first-year student at Wofford.

Philip Krupp '85 JOURN co-produced the recently aired Hallmark film, "Before You Say I Do." His wife, Elena, wrote the film. The romantic comedy is the 10th made-for-TV movie Krupp has produced, according to his profile on the Internet Movie Database.

Tina (Akouris) Corradino '94 JOURN and her husband Matthew welcomed twin boys Nicholas Matthew and James Gus on Feb. 27. The twins, who each weighed 7 pounds, 12 oz., are the couple's first children. The family resides in Brookfield. Both mother and father work for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Andrea Darlas '94 JOURN won first place in the broadcast category from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology for her three-part Investigative Series "Food for Thought," dealing with life-threatening food allergies. Entries were submitted from around the country.

Kareem Dale '95 ADV/'99 JD/MBA has been named Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy by Vice President Joe Biden. Dale, who is partially blind, will have direct access to the President in this role and he will coordinate the Administration's efforts to see that people with disabilities are on a level playing field with all Americans. Previously Dale served as the National Disability Director for the Obama for America campaign. He also served on the Arts Policy Committee and the Disability Policy Committee for then-Senator Obama.

Sandy Pudar '99 JOURN has been promoted to executive producer of the Chicago Tribune's Chicago CW affiliate WGN Morning News. During her 10-year tenure at the station, Pudar has worked her way through the ranks as a writer and producer, working on both the morning and 9 p.m. newscasts.

Chris Lukeman '06 ADV and Anne Shivers '09 HISTORY debuted their short film "The Transient" at several regional film festivals in February, including the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center Film Festival, the Mid-Ohio-Con Indie Film Festival, and the Route 66 Film Festival. Lukeman's latest film, released on the Internet on Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday, casts the 16th president as a vampire. Lukeman and Shivers, who both grew up near Springfield, liked playing with the place of history in pop culture and "using some of the emotional baggage that people have with Lincoln and having fun with it."

Matt Brickman '07 JOURN is the new morning weather anchor at Sinclair's WICD-ABC 15 in Champaign, Illinois. He is a familiar face at the station as he has worked in a variety of roles at WICD over the past two years, most recently as the Weekend Weather Anchor.


Kevin Cassman kept his spirits high while earning his degree from the College of Media.

Kevin Cassman '08 ADV, who survived a tragic car wreck in 2005, was featured in a February 12 story in the "Glenview Announcements," part of the Sun-Times Group. Hailed for his high spirits throughout his three-year recovery, Kassman was quoted saying, "Lucky's not the word I'd use. Ever since I was awakened from my coma, they'd say, 'Oh, you're so lucky to be alive.' Really? I don't feel too lucky right now. I'd rather say, 'Given my unlucky circumstances, I'm lucky.'"

Send your Alumni Notes, along with your hometown, to: media@illinoisalumni.org.

In Memory

Barbara Marshall '65 RADIO-TELEVISION passed away in February after a long battle with cancer. An active resident and city council member in O'ahu, Hawaii, she leaves behind her husband, Cliff; her son, Joe; his wife, Erin; and one grandson.

Stay Connected

"I'm glad I've been able to stay well connected to the College through the Media I. It's fun to see ideas we talked about on the Student Advisory Council come to life!" --Meghan O'Kelly '08 JOURN

Now is a good time to stay connected to the College of Media and the University of Illinois! Learn more about what the College is doing for students and alumni. Keep in touch with classmates, faculty, and mentors.

UPDATE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION in the University of Illinois Alumni Association Online Directory, and help us to keep you up to date. It takes only a minute, and keeps you connected for a lifetime. Share Media I with your friends and classmates and make sure they stay connected as well!

Media I Archive

The Media I is published 10 months a year for the alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of the College of Media at the University of Illinois. Your comments, news items, and Alumni Notes are welcome. Please e-mail us at: media@illinoisalumni.org

Publisher: Ron Yates, Dean of the College of Media
Editor: Sarah Dolinar, Associate Director for Communications

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