CHAMPAIGN, Ill. The University of Illinois advertising department will present a University of Wisconsin advertising professor with the S. Watson and Elizabeth S. Dunn Excellence in Advertising award during an afternoon reception Monday (Oct. 15).
Ivan Preston, currently a professor emeritus, will receive the award at a private reception at the Illini Union from 2 to 4 p.m. The event is open only to advertising department staff.
The award is given to industry practitioners or to advertising faculty at any university in recognition of excellence in advertising or the furthering of advertising education and research. The award and the accompanying $500 gift are given every two years.
Preston is an expert on government regulatory policies toward advertising and has written more than 100 published academic articles, reviews and research papers. He has written two books on exaggeration in advertising: "The Great American Blow-Up: Puffery in Advertising and Selling" (1975) and "The Tangled Web They Weave" (1994). He taught advertising at UW for 30 years and retired in 1998.
"He is one of the most respected and best known researchers in the field of advertising, particularly in relation to advertising regulation," said Kim Rotzoll, the dean of the UI College of Communications. "His books on advertising puffery are classics."