Planning To Succeed: Getting the Story on Brooklyn's Ad High School

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Getting the Story on Brooklyn's Ad High School

Brooklyn is the home to the nation's first public high school for advertising. If there's another one preceeding it, please tell me. It's name is High School for Innovation in Advertising and Media and it will open September 2008 within Canarsie High School. I'm pleased to be third to break the story in NYC. The first publisher of the story is the NY Daily News. I had a writing embargo until after Feb. 8 when Advertising Age would publish it. This news is fantastic. The people with whom I connected are equally fantastic.

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz is on a drive to have Brooklyn realize being "the 4th largest city in the US," although it is a borough of NYC. Markowitz knows a school like this will do so much for Brooklyn's reputation and real power. Imagine, your borough grooms the next advertising executives and managing staff. It's quite possible that in the future Brooklyn and Manhattan will be America's centers of advertising and media genius. College students may run to Brooklyn for that "great copy or art job."

Advertising Week, Inc executive director Matt Scheckner tried to pass himself off as an average Joe dropping some lines to me but, humility to the side, top ad people like Ron Berger, Michael Roth, Byron Lewis and Rosemarie Ryan wouldn't have just any Joe working their show. Rather, someone who serves as Yahoo's marketing director and previously headed American Association of Advertising Agencies and ADWEEK magazine would admirably run Advertising Week.

As a reporter getting quotes, one should remain objective but, after the second quote, "The kids will get dipped into the advertising and media sauce via a combination of..." I commended him on his great sound bites. Don't get me wrong; it was tough going getting a telephone interview with him. Possibly the embargo was being extended--it's all in the game of news reporting.

This high school is shot in the arm for Brooklyn. It's a feather in Markowitz's cap.

Labels: advertising, media training, society, technology