Research and Creative Work
From creative capstone projects to award-winning advertising campaigns - our creative work has a reputation for outshining the rest. In our research, we study the effects of advertising on the mind and dive deep into the underlying cognitive processing associated with using, and interacting with, the media.
Featured Work
Exploring cultural memory, race, and representation through the California Raisins at CHARM 2025
At the 22nd Biennial Conference on Historical Analysis and Research in Marketing (CHARM), held June 12–15, 2025, at Brunel University London, Ed Timke, Ph.D. — Assistant Professor of Advertising and Public Relations — and Christina L. Myers, Ph.D. — Assistant Professor of Journalism — brought critical insight to a campaign that once delighted audiences — and now invites more complex reflection. Their presentation, “Consuming Black Culture: The Materiality and Cultural Exploitation of the California Raisins Campaign,” highlighted how a beloved advertising phenomenon intersected with questions of cultural appropriation, commercial exploitation, and representation.
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Faculty-led telehealth project receives 2025 Excellence Award in Interdisciplinary Studies
Dar Meshi and researchers use brain activity to predict visits to urban areas
Telehealth for the coming decades think tank unites Michigan leaders to shape the future of equitable care
Developing best practices: Associate Professor Bree Holtz receives federal grant for telemedicine think tank
Labs
The Media and Advertising Psychology Lab (MAP Lab) studies and measures the effects of advertising and the media on individuals and the world. Studies in the MAP Lab rely on physical outputs - like eye-tracking, heart rate and perspiration - to unravel the underlying cognitive and affective processing associated with using mediated communication.
Learn from the Best
Faculty
John Besley
Ellis N. Brandt Professor of Public RelationsDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsDr. Besley studies public opinion about science and scientists' opinions about the public in the context of trying to help science communicators be more strategic.
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Faculty
Saleem Alhabash
ProfessorDepartment
Advertising + Public RelationsSaleem Alhabash is an Associate Professor of Public Relations and Social Media at the Department of Advertising + Public Relations, studying the persuasive effects of social media.