Biography
Peg Murphy is the Associate Chair and an Associate Professor in the Communication Department, teaching advertising, consumer behavior, brand strategy, social media & digital strategy, and capstone competition team coursework. Peg's background includes 20+ years experience working at agencies, corporations, and consultancies on brands such as Apple, Boca Burger, Calvin Klein, Crate & Barrel, Liz Claiborne, the Alzheimer's Association, Nine West, Walgreens and more. Her proudest moments involve student successes, such as coaching undergrads from many different majors to national competition wins (e.g., first place regional wins repeatedly and national finalist presentations, along with winning first place "Best Plan Book" nationally for the National Student Ad Competition, American Ad Federation; 1st and 2nd Place National wins, Collegiate Effies; co-coached 1st and 2nd Place Student Challenge 2018 teams for the National Retail Federation, 1st Place National Wins for the L'Orael Brandstorm Challenge, etc.). Peg is also so thrilled when students move on to amazing creative professional work at firms such as Leo Burnett, FCB, Droga5, Wieden & Kennedy, Energy BBDO, Havas, Digitas, Starcom, etc. where they work on brands such as Nike, Samsung, Wrigley, Miller Lite, VISA, Google, Old Spice, and so many more. Peg currently serves as an elected member of the American Advertising Federation's National Executive Education Committee Board, works with the One Club and Advertising Week in NYC, and leads round tables and fireside chats at national industry conferences. Her research interests, presented and published internationally, include creative qualitative research techniques (recently won "Best Teaching Innovation" paper at the Marketing Management Association 2022 conference), male body image, fatherhood and the media, aging and representations, the value of hands-on, project-based teaching, and more. Peg Murphy holds a BFA in Theater and a MA in Speech Communication from the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana.
Instructional Areas
Advertising, Creative Strategy/Account Planning, Marketing Research, Integrated/360 Communication, Interdisciplinary Competitions, Interdisciplinary Community Engagement Projects, Account / Brand Management, Consumer Behavior, Marketing Communication
Creative Practice and Research Interests
GenZ/Post Millennial Consumers, Fatherhood in the Media, Male Body Image, Trend Spotting, Consumer Insights & Creative Strategy, Hands-on Project Based Experiential Learning
Degrees
B.F.A., Theatre University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 1983
M.A., Speech Communication University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 1985