Stutts inducted into Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame

AUSTIN, Texas — The Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame will induct Dr. Mary Ann Stutts, McCoy College of Business retired professor of marketing and Texas State University distinguished professor emeritus, on Friday, June 10. 

The organization will be recognizing its 2020 induction class at a celebration that has been postponed for two years due the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Stutts, who retired from Texas State in 2014, has been a leader and innovator in developing and nurturing the American Advertising Federation’s (AAF) National Student Advertising Competition. Her peers recognize her as being a driving force in the AAF competition’s rise to prominence, known as the “Super Bowl” of college advertising. 

As a professor of marketing at Texas State, her system of teaching the AAF competition campaign courses proved to be very successful. In her 32 years of guiding student teams, Texas State advanced to nationals 12 times. Those teams finished in the top four at nationals seven times, and they won two national titles.

“It became simple to put together winning teams,” she said. “I always had a co-advisor from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, but I was the consistent piece for 32 years. We had tremendous support from the university at all levels. Some other universities didn’t have that support. Life becomes easier when you have support.”

Dr. Stutts said that tremendous student interest and a wide range of majors were keys to success in AAF competitions. Their majors included marketing — in the McCoy College of Business — along with advertising, public relations, journalism, art, communication design, and from other programs in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and the College of Fine Arts and Communication.

“We had the luxury of interviewing about 40 students from majors all across the university,” she said. “That’s how you run an agency. We would reduce that number to 20 for the team, so we had great teams of the best students. What I also marveled at — because we had those diverse majors every year — was that it was so interesting to watch the students realize what the multiple disciplines brought to the table.”

Dr. Stutts is only the second academic to be inducted into the Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame. She has won numerous personal awards, including the highest educator award presented by the AAF. The knowledge she has passed on to her students has enabled dozens to land jobs with many agencies.

“Students will tell you — there will be 57 students from across 32 years will be at [the Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame event] — that their experience on the AAF teams had them prepared. Recruiters wanted to talk to them because these students would be ready to work tomorrow.”

The Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame was created by the AAF's 10th District — consisting of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas — to honor leaders from the region who have distinguished themselves in their careers, who have contributed to the betterment of advertising and its reputation, and who have made volunteer efforts outside the workplace. Inductees need not be a member of the AAF Tenth District. Inductees will automatically be nominated for the National Advertising Hall of Fame as they become eligible.

Other members of the Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame’s 2020 induction class include the late Jim Stuart and Randy Bacon, former executives at StuartBacon Advertising-Public Relations in Fort Worth; Dennis D’Amico, former advertising leader at several firms in Dallas; Mike Levy, founder of Texas Monthly magazine; Mark McGarrah and Bryan Jessee, partners at the McGarrah Jessee agency in Austin; Brad Snyder of Snyder + Associates in Corpus Christi; and Adan Trevino, co-founder of KXLN-TV Channel 45, the first Spanish-language television station in Houston. ✯

For more information, email Twister Marquiss, manager of marketing and communications for the McCoy College of Business, at twister@txstate.edu.

About the McCoy College of Business

Established in 1970, Texas State’s business school officially became the McCoy College of Business in 2004 following a donation of $20 million by Emmett and Miriam McCoy. The college, which offers classes in both San Marcos and Round Rock, is accredited by AACSB in both business and accounting, and has graduated nearly 42,000 alumni.