AnnouncementsApril 24, 2019
April 24th was our 2nd annual Brandcenter Day of Giving, when we asked alumni and friends of the Brandcenter to give back. The results are in: 145 donors, most of which are VCU Brandcenter alumni, current students, faculty and staff, raised $16,309 for scholarships to help Brandcenter students pay for their education.
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AnnouncementsApril 18, 2019
The VCU Brandcenter is thrilled to announce Joyce King Thomas as its 2019 commencement speaker on May 11th.
Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of McCann XBC (ExtraBoldCondensed), Joyce is best known as the creator and writer behind Mastercard’s Priceless campaign, which ran in 100 countries and was spoofed by everyone from Ralph Nader to Bart Simpson. She was one of the 100 most award-winning chief creative officers of 2018.
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In the NewsMarch 20, 2019
Executive Director Vann Graves and the VCU Brandcenter announced a new advisory council designed to address the new order of brands, creativity and marketing.
The Brandcenter's Director’s Council includes several influential leaders in the more traditional agency and brand space—Omnicom, Universal McCann and MetLife are represented—but also tips its hat to technology, media and entrepreneurship. Amber Guild, for example, is the president of T Brand Studios at the New York Times and Howard Jordan, Jr. (a Brandcenter alum and Richmond native) is a story editor and TV writer at Netflix.
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Analysis & OpinionMarch 1, 2019
“We have these same conversations [around diversity in advertising], and there seems to be no traction, but those conversations are easy to sell,” said VCU Brandcenter executive director and former JWT Atlanta CCO Vann Graves. “Whereas where there are successes, they’re rarely celebrated.”
Graves and other industry pros discuss iconic work like McCann Worldgroup's "Hilltop" for Coca-cola (1971) and others that helped shape our industry - and were co-created by people of color.
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