Young Texas Creative Alumni Garner National Awards

AUSTIN, Texas – Nov. 1, 2006 – Several recent graduates from the University of Texas’ “Texas Creative” advertising sequence have won national award recognition for excellence in advertising.

• The team of Emily Sander (’04), copywriter and Colin Gaul (’04), art director, at JWT New York, were recognized with a silver radio award & merit awards in television and radio from the 2006 One Show for their “Meth” campaign for the Partnership for a Drug Free America.

• Crispin, Porter + Bogusky’s Jason Ambrose (’01), copywriter and Dustin Ballard (’03), art director, won two TV Gold awards from the 2006 One Show, a Bronze at the 2006 One Show and a 2006 Silver Cannes Lion for their “Fair Enough” campaign for the American Legacy Foundation.

• Ambrose and Ballard also were ranked as one of the top five art director and copywriter teams in the industry by “Boards” magazine earlier this year. The due also earned a silver ANDY award from the Advertising Club of New York.

• Greg Smith (’04), art director at DDB San Francisco, had print work for Pine Sol recognized in the most recent Communication Arts “Advertising Annual.”

• Danielle Thornton (’04), art director at Saatchi & Saatchi New York, received a London International Award for Interactive Media (Travel) and a Silver Cannes Lion (Outdoor) for her creative work for Air Tahiti Nui.

“It’s exciting to see our young graduates doing this well so quickly,” said Sean Thompson, a lecture in the Texas Creative sequence in the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin. “Their early achievements in the industry are a testament to the education they receive here at Texas, both in the classroom, and through the great internships and mentorships our industry partners offer to our students.”

One of four sequences in the Department of Advertising, Texas Creative is one of the leading creative advertising education programs in the country. Rooted in sound strategy and conceptual process, Texas Creative molds students into experimental thinkers who are primed to create innovative advertising, branding and social messages that are delivered through a variety of integrated traditional and nontraditional media.

The Department of Advertising, the largest of its kind in the U.S. and the only program that offers a doctoral degree in advertising, features four keystone programs: Texas Creative, a program designed to mold talented students into skilled advertising copywriters and art directors; Texas Media, a program helping students develop the characteristics that define success in advertising media planning, buying, sales, and new media development; Texas Interactive, which gives students a better understanding of interactive communication within the context of advertising, direct response and other forms of integrated communications; and public relations, an interdisciplinary program that hones decision-making, strategic management and critical thinking abilities in order to prepare students for careers in the diverse field of public relations. For more information, visit http://advertising.utexas.edu/index.asp.

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Contact: Sean Thompson

(512) 471.8153

thompsonian@hotmail.com