Neal Burns Wins Austin Ad Federation Educator of the Year
Each year the Austin Advertising Federation honors some of the best and the brightest from the local advertising community with their Big Wig Awards. Unlike the more traditional Addys that laud creative teams and work, the Big Wig Awards pay tribute to the "unsung heroes" like media reps, production companies and other vendors that help agencies' work shine.
The Austin Ad Fed also realizes the important role teachers have in preparing students for the advertising world; and shows their appreciation by honoring someone they identify as Educator of the Year. This year that distinction belongs to Texas Advertising professor Dr. Neal Burns.
Dr. Burns, who currently heads up the Account Planning program for the department, was nominated and selected for this honor by his peers. Ironically enough, he was nominated against his former student, Maria Rivera, who is also a lecturer in the Department of Advertising at Texas.
He has proudly represented the University as an active member of the Austin Ad Federation for several years, and currently holds the position of Program Director. Having belonged to local advertising federations in Minneapolis and Austin, Dr. Burns believes these local organizations "really help define your advertising community. It's also really great for networking." He also commends the group on their recognizing the important role the academic community plays in shaping the local advertising industry.
Having spent many years working in an agency environment and having had the experience of running his own agency, Dr. Burns has a unique and very valuable perspective to share with his students and colleagues. His classes strike a balance between the acquisition of knowledge and experience.
Burns' graduate-level Account Planning class requires students to take initiative and go out into the real world to observe and talk to people in order to find solutions to advertising-related issues. As in his past classes, students this past spring had the opportunity to work with a real client.
Dr. Burns assigned this particular class the local non-profit organization PAPA (Political Asylum Project of Austin), a group whose mission was to provide legal assistance to immigrants in Central Texas. The prospect of actually being able to help a client and the people in their community really motivated his students to dig into people's perception of immigration during a highly politicized period of media coverage on the issue, which resulted in highly original work.
Aside from his Account Planning, Dr. Burns also has taught a class on Advertising and Culture. He notes that he truly enjoys teaching this specific class because it allows him to step outside of the topic where he gained the much of his professional experience in order to talk about advertising in a more general sense.
Author of over 75 articles and papers, Dr. Burns received his Bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois and his Master's and Doctoral degrees from McGill University. His research interests include Consumer Behavior and Rebranding.
He has undoubtedly enriched the lives of his students through his agency stories, enlightening projects, and sage advice than spans beyond what students have come to expect in a typical classroom experience. For these reasons, he is an excellent choice for the Austin Ad Fed's award for Educator of the Year.
8/3/2006