09/21/2026
This week’s is Dr. Carrie La Ferle, Professor of Ethics & Culture in Advertising at TAI.
🎓 Education: Dr. La Ferle attended the University of Western Ontario for her B.A. in Sociology, followed by an M.A. in Advertising from Michigan State University and a Ph.D. from UT-Austin.
📝 Experience: After earning her master’s degree, Dr. La Ferle worked on the Nissan account at Chiat\Day and spent four years in Tokyo. She returned to school for her Ph.D. and began teaching as an Assistant Professor at Michigan State afterward. “SMU called one day and said they wanted to grow the SMU advertising program. After 8 years at MSU, I moved back to Texas to work at SMU and I have been here for almost 20 years!”
✏️ In the Classroom: Dr. La Ferle teaches “ADV 2302: Advertising, Society, and Ethics” to undergraduates, as well as “ADV 6301: Cultural Intelligence in Advertising,” “ADV 6371: Advertising as a Cultural Force,” and “ADV 6374: International Advertising” to graduate students.
🔍 Insight: Although needed products should sell well anywhere at the right price point, size, and quality, Dr. La Ferle notes that cultural intelligence is a necessary skill in advertising those products. “To compete against equally good value products, understanding the culture of your target audience makes all the difference.”
🌏 Outside the Classroom: When not teaching or researching, Dr. La Ferle loves to travel, stay active, spend time with her loved ones, and volunteer for her church’s ministry. She enjoys trying new activities and experiences during her travels. “In Qatar I tried sandboarding and dune bashing, ziplining in Costa Rica, and repelling at Mt. Olympus in Greece.”
⛸️ Fun Fact: Dr. La Ferle has a background in figure skating! “Growing up I was a competitive figure skater, starting on the ice at the age of 4 and competing up to age 15. I taught skating during my undergraduate and graduate degrees.”
Read more about Dr. La Ferle at the link in our bio! 🔗
