The Department has graduated large numbers of outstanding students with BA and MA degrees, many of whom have moved into the highest levels of management. Numerous graduates of the MSU Ph.D. program in mass media, now media and information systems, have distinguished themselves in advertising and public relations university careers worldwide. A separate department-operated Ph.D. program in retailing continues with its long-standing record of quality university placements.

The department has been organizing the establishment of an initiative, dedicated to assembling the research interests of several advertising, public relations, and retailing faculty into a package of activities designed to stimulate further research into the social consequences of marketing to America’s children. The first wave of publications emanating from this effort was funded by the Kellogg Foundation.

The first half century of the Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing has been marked by constant growth, dramatic change, increasing internationalism and a dynamic definition of advertising, a principal instrument of marketing communications in a flattening world. The on-going innovations and diverse, multi-disciplinary faculty members found in today’s department combine with a strong history of success to predict that Michigan State University’s Department of Advertising, Public Relations, and Retailing has an ever- brightening future.