AGC Donates Skills in Philanthropy Project

The Advertising Graduate Council has undertaken a semester project that will allow members to showcase what they have learned at Texas, as well as give back to the Austin community.

This semester AGC will develop an advertising campaign for Bird's Barbershop, a funky salon with two Austin locations: one South Lamar and another on Burnet Road. Previously the organization has done fundraising activities like Race for the Cure and volunteered at the Austin Addy's.

"I decided to redefine the breadth of 'community service' to include projects that would encourage camaraderie between AGC members and also to engage in activities that would bring about positive PR for AGC within the local Austin Community," said Robbie Izar, community service director. The project is especially beneficial because, owners of Bird's Salon, Michael and Erin Portman, have previous industry experience, as a creative director and a PR specialist, respectively.

The campaign for Bird's Barbershop is still in the planning phase, but once the account planners have developed a creative brief it will get passed to the art directors and copy writers who will have the rest of the semester to develop the creative strategy. Izar says Account Planning Professor, Mike Mackert has been a great resource for the planners.

The project appealed to AGC members so much that three teams were formed. In the end Michael and Erin Portman will get to put their experience to use, judging which of the three campaigns they like the most for their business.

From this project, AGC hopes to give participating members the chance to run an entire campaign on their own, gaining actual experience in account planning and creative. "It's to give AGC students something tangible to put in their portfolio and to help Bird's with their current business," said Emily Grober, AGC President.

Originally, working for a non-profit company had been considered, however money was not available for media purchases. Working for a business like Bird's will allow creative materials to be brought to life.

"The idea here is to create a real life
 campaign and see if it has legs to survive in the real world. A lot of graduate students create work for their 'books,' but those don't get scrutinized
 until they hit the job interview circuit. I wanted to give AGC'ers an opportunity to work on a real campaign, for a real client and get real
 feedback from industry insiders," Izar said.

Community service doesn't stop there, later in the semester AGC will also participate in Habitat for Humanity. The group would also like to work more with the Texas Advertising Group on other volunteer activities, or perhaps another professional project.

3/26/2008