Former Texas Creative Students Named Top Creative Team

This was a press release sent to me.

May 2, 2007

Contact: Sean Thompson (512.471.8153 or contact via e-mail.)

Former Texas Creative Students Named Top Creative Team

NEW YORK, NY – Two recent University of Texas advertising grads, Dave Roth and Shaun Bruce, were named the best creative team in the entire business with less than two years of experience. The team recently picked up their “First Boards Award” clapboard in Los Angeles from ‘Boards magazine, an industry publication.

Roth and Bruce, both May 2006 graduates, were hired full-time last fall at Amalgamated, a cutting-edge New York ad agency, following internships at the agency.

Asked about their favorite account they’ve worked on thus far, Roth mentions the Ben & Jerry’s brand. “Since we’re part of the production process, we’ve gotten to do lots of stuff we haven’t for our other clients – like pitch scripts, look over production company reels, chat with directors, cast talent, edit, and such. We’ve taken some really fun trips out to Burlington to visit headquarters where there are bountiful free pints of test ice cream.”

Beyond the ice cream perks and working with Ben & Jerry’s, Roth and Bruce are also working on renaming Court TV and the promotion of a new series called “Bounty Girls.”

“What’s made Shaun and me really lucky to have jobs at Amalgamated is that the conceptual phase starts with the same freedom we had in Texas Creative. We still make thumbnails like Sean Thompson had us do the first week of Portfolio I.”

What makes the creative sequence at UT standout according to Roth? “Like Texas, at Amalgamated, we’re all rooting for each other and helping each other out, and I definitely work better in an environment that’s mutualistic and not competitive.”

As the only UT graduates at their agency, they’re encouraging Texas Creative students to send their portfolios, so they can recruit more Longhorn talent.

Before coming to Austin for the same program Bruce, a Colorado native, pursued journalism at the University of Colorado. Roth, a graduate of the University of Michigan, pursued a degree in dramatic arts.

Located in New York, Amalgamated was founded in 2003 providing their clients with a service that is unique to the world, combining distinctive brand consulting with a full-service multi-platform advertising agency.

Housed within the University of Texas’ Department of Advertising, Texas Creative is one of the leading creative advertising education programs on the planet. Rooted in sound strategy and conceptual process, Texas Creative molds students into fearless experimental thinkers who are primed to create innovative advertising, branding, and social messages that are delivered through a variety of integrated traditional and nontraditional media.

Advertising is one of five academic departments in the College of Communication, which specializes in Advertising/Public Relations education and research and provides a training ground for creatives, account executives, media planners, account planners, interactive specialists, researchers and public relations executives. The University of Texas is located in the center of Austin, Texas.

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