From left: Corinne Baker, Zantore Buoy and Gigi Kawar
For 10 years, seniors and graduate students in the Newhouse School’s advertising program have traveled to Dubai every summer to intern at TBWA\RAAD, the Middle Eastern hub of one of the world’s leading agency networks. Reda Raad ’95, the son of the agency’s founder and now its CEO, is an alumnus of the Whitman School.
Typically, interns spend six to eight weeks living in Dubai and enjoying accommodations provided by the agency. This year, when the COVID-19 pandemic made that impossible, TBWA/RAAD established virtual internships. Undergraduates Corinne Baker and Zantore Buoy and graduate student Gigi Kawar are currently at work with their faraway colleagues—Baker from Cleveland; Buoy from Bristol, England; and Kawar from Amman, Jordan.
This global opportunity is valuable whether it’s virtual or not, says advertising professor Kevin O’Neill, who created and administers the internship program.
“TBWA/Raad serves a simply remarkable group of global brands: Nissan, Adidas, Mars and Visa, among them,” O’Neill says. “For our students to see how brands they’re familiar with conduct themselves in other countries and cultures will serve them once they enter the business. It’s great exposure to the global brand conversations that define the business today.”
