Gyro Worldwide Advertising CEO Steven Grasse ’87 to speak on guerrilla and viral marketing at SU Nov. 14

Gyro Worldwide Advertising CEO Steven Grasse ’87 to speak on guerrilla and viral marketing at SU Nov. 14November 03, 2008Erica Blustesblust@syr.edu

Steven Grasse ’87, CEO of Gyro Worldwide Advertising in Philadelphia, will give a “Viral Talk” on guerrilla and viral marketing Friday, Nov. 14, at 5 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by COLAB, an interdisciplinary initiative based in Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, and The NewHouse student group in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Paid parking is available in the University Avenue Garage, the Booth Garage and the Marion lot.

Grasse, a Pennsylvania native, earned a bachelor’s degree in advertising at the Newhouse School. He worked as a writer at Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand and Beber Silverstein Miami before creating Gyro in 1988. Gyro’s first client was MTV; its list now includes RJ Reynolds’ brands Camel and Kool, as well as Prince and Ecco. The agency recently developed the brand Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and has worked with clients to create such products as Hendrick’s Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum and Marshall McGearty Tobacco Artisans. Gyro also created Highball Magazine and the clothing lines Sailor Jerry and g*mart. For more information about Gyro, visit http://www.gyroworldwide.com.

Grasse is author of “Evil Empire: 101 Ways England Ruined the World” (Quirk, 2007) and the subject of Harriet Bernard-Levy’s book “Virus: The Outrageous History of Gyro Worldwide” (Gold Crown Press, 2008), published in conjunction with the agency’s 20th anniversary.

COLAB is a new interdisciplinary initiative that encourages SU students and faculty to use their diverse skills and perspectives to solve complex, real-world problems creatively and collaboratively. Grasse’s talk is one component of COLAB’s upcoming charrette-a short but intensive design project-that will be held Nov. 13-16. The charrette will focus on developing visual tools to help the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce revitalize the city’s Jefferson Row area. Grasse is one of several professionals whose perspective will inform the charrette participants.

For more information, contact Chris McCray at (315) 443-1476 or chmccray@syr.edu.