News Release

Local angle: Ithaca, N.Y.

From a folding table and chairs
to one of world’s top ad agencies

CHAPEL HILL — Dan Wieden of Wieden + Kennedy, the advertising agency that handles the Nike account, will speak at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on April 18.

"Walk in Stupid Every Morning" will be the title of Wieden’s free public lecture at 5:30 p.m. in Carroll Hall auditorium. The School of Journalism and Mass Communication will present the talk as part of its Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series.

Wieden is co-founder, creative director and chief executive officer of the agency, which is based in Portland, Ore. He and David Kennedy, who is now retired, started Wieden + Kennedy in 1982 with one client, a small athletic shoe company named Nike. They had a typewriter Wieden borrowed from Nike founder Phil Knight, three employees, a folding table and chairs Kennedy brought from home.

Six years later, the agency launched the legendary "Just Do It" Nike campaign. Today, Wieden + Kennedy clients include ESPN, Coca-Cola, Miller Brewing Co., Starbucks, Avon and, of course, Nike. The agency has more than 400 employees and offices in New York, London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Shanghai. Wieden + Kennedy has been named National Agency of the Year by several different publications and won numerous awards, all detailed on its Web site, http://www.wk.com. Time magazine recognized Wieden was as one of the world’s 50 CyberElites.

Wieden attributes the agency’s success to a culture promoting a uniquely creative environment devoid of traditional agency structures and bureaucracy.

Wieden also is known for community service. With his wife, Bonnie, he established Caldera, a non-profit creativity camp for inner-city kids. He has supported the SMART (Start Making A Reader Today) program, the Oregon Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and other organizations working to benefit children.

In recognition of his philanthropic contributions, Wieden received an Aubrey A. Watzek Award from Lewis & Clark College in Portland in 2003.

An Oregon native and graduate of the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, Wieden received his alma mater’s Pioneer Award in 1999.

Wieden’s speech will be the 13th in the Park series, which features outstanding mass communication professionals. The Triad Foundation of Ithaca, N.Y., funds the lectures to enhance its Roy H. Park Fellowship Program in the school.

Each year, the foundation provides fellowships for 14 new master’s and eight new doctoral students to enter the school’s graduate program. In fall 2006, the 10th class of Park Fellows will begin its studies.

The lecture series honors the late Roy H. Park, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Park Communications Inc., a multimedia company with broadcast and print properties throughout the United States.

Park had a longtime affiliation with the school, serving on its foundation board of directors from 1981-93 and its board of visitors from 1989-93. In 1989, he received the North Carolina Award, the state's highest civilian honor. He was inducted into the N.C. Journalism Hall of Fame, headquartered in the school, in 1990. He died in 1993.

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School of Journalism and Mass Communication contact: John Kuka, (919) 966-3323, jkuka@unc.edu
News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589