The SMU Ad Club hosted a post-Super Bowl viewing party to celebrate this year’s most noteworthy commercials Tuesday in Umphrey Lee.
About 22 students and two faculty members visited the Advertising Department to talk about the highs and lows from Amazon’s Alexa commercial to Diet Coke’s commercial revealing their new flavors. SMU senior and president of the Ad Club Joanna Fennessy led a guided discussion regarding the various commercials that were viewed. Fennessy encouraged students to share their opinions on the commercials, whether they were positive or negative.
“I think this is one of our most fun events,” Fennessy said. “Other events at school and at [Temerlin] can be a little serious, but this is a fun event to show your love of advertising and get to talk about the commercials.”
SMU’s Ad Club hosts various events throughout the fall and spring semesters. Students from all majors and minors are invited to attend these events, which can include anything from visiting local agencies to putting on career fairs to listening to guest speakers.
Fennessy talked about the kind of preparation that must be done in order for an event like this to occur.
“The Ad Club runs on events, not meetings,” Fennessy said. “It’s basically ordering a lot of food because free food gets people to come to an event. We normally only have 10 people or so and today we had [more than] 20! I am happy people took advantage of the event even if it was a lightheaded [one.]”
Senior Advertising major Amy Cooley attended the event and said she had a good time.
“I liked that it was mostly discussion based, and I love that there is always free food,” Cooley said. “[Since we are] all Advertising students, we all had similar perspectives on a lot of the ads.”
Senior student and member of the Ad Club, Alex Mackillop, was fairly happy with how the event turned out.
“I think it went really well” Mackillop said. “We had a lot of people show up, everyone was jumping into discussion, which is always the hardest part… but people in advertising usually tend to be very opinionated [anyway.]”
Mackillop encourages other students who are interested in Ad Club to get involved.
“[Ad club has] a lot more of a community [aspect] and made me appreciate other’s opinions on ads,” Mackillop said. “It’s is a great thing to put on your resume and a great way to meet other people in Temerlin…it’s a great networking [tool].”
Fennessy adds her input.
“I think ad club is a good conversation topic in interviews, saying how I run a team of officers gives me good leadership skills and [keeps] me relevant in [Temerlin],” Fennessy said.
Fenesseey is hoping to expand the club to anyone who is interested in the advertising field, not just declared majors or minors. She’s looking forward to their next event, which will be a tour of the local Dallas agency, The Richards Group, March 2.
