Craig Allen

Craig Allen, UT Austin alumnus and art director at Wieden + Kennedy, flew in from London on Wednesday evening, Nov. 10, to spend four days visiting with various advertising classes and faculty members of the university's College of Communication.

Allen, who graduated from the university in 2003, has found great success at Wieden + Kennedy, a full-service, creatively driven advertising agency based in Portland, Ore. He's best known for his recent work with copywriting partner, Eric Kallman, on the award-winning Old Spice campaign, "Smell Like a Man, Man." This commercial garnered Allen an Emmy Award and has generated 24 million views on YouTube since February.

Allen started his visit with a lecture to John Murphy's ADV 318J, Introduction to Advertising, before speaking with Matt McCutchen's ADV 325, Introduction to Advertising Creative and Murphy's ADV 370/PR 367, Advertising and IBP Management.

The next day Allen met with Maria Rivera's Creative Portfolio I students and did a portfolio review of Sean Thompson's Portfolio III students' work. He also spent time meeting with some of the communication faculty, including John Murphy, Maria Rivera, Sean Thompson, Matt McCutcheon and the advertising and public relations Department Chair, Isabella Cunningham.

Allen's lecture gave students a better understanding of what kind of work an director does as well as personal insight on how advertising can be a thrilling, yet demanding, industry.

"We were all so excited to have Craig come and speak to us. The number of great campaigns he's worked on is beyond impressive, and to know such a great talent went

through our very program made me proud to be a part of it," said Michael Breighner, a junior majoring in the advertising creative sequence. "Craig gave a great presentation, you could feel the energy in the room. More than anything, I was taken aback by how humble and approachable he was."