The MSU Advertising Club is being recognized at the American Advertising Federation (AAF) national conference for the greatest college chapter growth this year.  As part of the award, AAF will send a student representative to the ADMERICA! National Conference, in Phoenix, Ariz., June 5-8.

The MSU Ad Team is also making an impact by helping AT&T with its “It Can Wait” anti-texting and driving campaign.  In order to raise awareness among drivers about the dangers of texting behind the wheel, the Ad Team created the AT&T Textulator Challenge event, which included activities such a prize wheel, a photo booth and a Mario Kart texting while driving Textulator (text-you-later). The Textulator Challenge allowed participants to play Mario Kart while trying to text on phones provided by AT&T. “These students would never play a game of Mario Kart and start trying to text and win,” says Melissa Burnett, advisor for the Ad Team. “Everyone knows that they shouldn’t do it, (but) 98 percent are saying they do it.”

The team hopes the event will highlight the dangers of texting while driving.

“A lot of our generation is constantly on their phones,” says Stephanie French, vice president of Ad Team. “And sometimes even in the car we don’t put them down.” The team believes the fun, interactive way of attempting to win at Mario Kart while texting will show how texting while driving can have fatal consequences.

The Ad Team — a group of selected students — works on a complex national campaign, competing with other students from advertising programs across the country. Thanks in large part to the ongoing success in these national competitions, MSU’s advertising program is nationally recognized and is the largest known program within a comprehensive marketing department in the nation. The Advertising Team finished first in the 2008 American Public Transportation Association “Go Green. Go Public” campaign. In 2010, The Ad Team presented a research-based advertising campaign on tween seat-belt use to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Ad Team also finished first in 2003 and 2004 in district competition, which included the finest schools in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa. Most recently, in 2012, the Ad Team was one of three selected from 17 universities to present their campaign in Washington, D.C., for the United States Medical Reserve Corps, America On Call.

This year, the Ad Team was selected as one of six competing universities to create an AT&T brand strategy that can be used at other campuses.