New AAF president and CEO, James Edmund Datri, is looking to make the general public more aware of the nuts and bolts of how the advertising industry works. Datri is exploring the possibility of creating a reality TV show out of the organization’s National Student Advertising Competition. On the political front, Datri is active in trying to head off possible plans to trim the deductibility of advertising as a business expense. “The argument I’ve been using on Capitol Hill is that if you touch advertising, you hurt everyone because advertising is the engine for everyone else to sell their products or services,” said Datri.

When: Friday, January 7, 2011, 11:30am – 1:00pm (Lunch served at 11:30am, speaker begins at noon) Where: Juban’s in Baton Rouge Cost: Free for AAF-BR members, $25 per Guest RSVP by Wednesday, January 5, 2011 Luncheon Topic: “Regional Advertising Doesn’t have to Suck” by Robert Campbell, Partner / Creative Director of 808Inc., Houston, TX Fifteen years ago, there was a pretty clear difference between “regional” and “national” advertising. If you were a creative on a national account, you shot your commercial in Sydney. If you were on a regional account, you were going to Dallas. Then, the Internet went from novelty to necessity, fundamentally changing the way we communicate, followed by an explosion of overlapping subcultures and economic euphoria, followed by the cold shower of reality. The result was the virtual disappearance