Last Thursday I went to Manhattan, KS and made a couple of appearances.

The first appearance was as a guest lecturer in Professor Soontae An’s Principles Of Advertising class. I was asked to come in and talk about the creative process as it applies to advertising and to field questions using my grizzled, time-tested agency veteran point of view. I talked about my recent involvement with The Stalls and how the idea came about and what the creative team was striving to achieve with the campaign.

This was a great class to attend because it really shifted focus from the types of groups I typically talk with. Principles Of Advertising is a required class for Kansas State advertising majors, but it’s also an elective for a number of majors, so I got to talk to a wide variety of freshman and sophomore students, including undecideds. In fact, I had one guy come up to me after class and tell me that my presentation helped him decide that advertising was the career for him and that he was heading to change his major at that moment. For better or worse, I changed his life and that’s kind of cool. Hope you love advertising as much as I do, Shane.

Later in the evening, I gave an updated version of my presentation, “From Cowboy To Astronaut” to the Kansas State Ad Club. I updated the “crystal ball” section of the presentation to talk more about mobile marketing opportunities and virtual worlds and then added a section on augmented reality.

Both conversations were really great and I enjoyed taking the time to all the students. The questions in both sessions centered around the best ways to prepare to get one’s first internship or job, i.e. polishing up portfolios, the importance of related experience, etc. I think at some point I’ll write a post that answers the most frequent questions I receive. I also urged all students to attend November 3rd’s Kansas City Ad Club Career Day at the Uptown Theater. I’ll be co-hosting a panel on portfolio development that morning.

I had quite a bit of time in between the two sessions, so after having an interesting lunch with Professor An (where we primarily discussed advergaming), I spent the afternoon at former Barkley intern Joel Jackson’s house catching up on email, having more interesting conversations and watching episodes of Arrested Development on DVD. I also spent a little time watching the K-State marching band practice.

I really needed to get back into the old “college student” mode, at least for a little while. As many of you who have attended my presentations are well aware, I was a little bit of a professional student and there are times that I get a bit nostalgic for my days at Oklahoma State. Hanging out with Joel and his roommates was very cathartic and I thank them very much for letting me crash there for the day.

Of course, although it was great to relive that feeling it was also great to return to present reality. As I walked from Joel’s house back to campus to give my second presentation, I felt a little like Mad Men’s Don Draper when he went and visited the apartment full of SoHo beatniks. He hung out and partied with them all day, but when it was time to leave he was easily able to walk out the door past the police (who were looking to bust those darn pot smoking beatniks) because he blended into the upstanding citizenry of the day.

Thanks again for hosting me, Kansas State. It was great.

Next stop for “From Cowboy To Astronaut,” the Oklahoma City Ad Club Career Day.