Department of Communication

Assistant Professor Emily West (communication) spent two weeks participating in the Advertising Educational Foundation’s Visiting Professor Program in Chicago this summer. This competitive program places 15 to 18 professors each summer in advertising agencies where they learn firsthand about the industry.

Professors come from a variety of fields, including marketing, advertising, communication, and the liberal arts. West spent her two weeks at Leo Burnett. “I mainly observed the Kellogg’s Adult Cereals account,” she says. “I was exposed to many stages of an ad campaign’s design, from the early planning stages of a campaign for a new product, to reviewing and revising creative ideas, to interpreting the results of testing advertising ideas with consumers, to evaluations of campaigns once they have been released.”

Several classes that West regularly teaches, including Media Audiences, Consumer Culture, and Visual Communication, will be enriched by this experience. And, she anticipates that it will inform future research on topics such as branded entertainment and brand integration.