In Class: Campaign Manager

“I want [my students] to be excited ... about what they want to do in the world,” says senior advertising lecturer Marisa Peacock. (Image by Fred Zwicky)

My area is social media strategy. I have my own consulting business, The Strategic Peacock, which I founded in 2010.

Courses I teach include social media and personal branding, writing for public relations, and advertising management. The eight-week capstone class in advertising, which is aimed at seniors, is my most fun course.

The students meet with the client, do a lot of research, identify trends, discover new insights, and pitch a concept for an advertising campaign. They get experience developing their work in an environment where it is safe to make mistakes, ask questions, and explore ideas.

We do a lot of work on campus and in the community. Every flu-prevention campaign by the McKinley Health Center has come out of our class. The most recent one is “Never Miss a Memory.” An earlier campaign was titled “You Call the Shots.”

We also do work around the world. We created a social media campaign for Uman Tok, a non-profit that makes and distributes reusable menstrual hygiene products in Sierra Leone.

In the spring of 2025, our class connected with the Abraham Lincoln Association in Washington, D.C. They wanted to insert Lincoln into the U.S. 250th anniversary celebration, which is taking place this year.

The question for the class was: How do we introduce our 16th president to those who may not be aware of his legacy and what it has to do with the Declaration of Independence?

Over three semesters, our students developed social media campaigns, an Instagram account, and all kinds of stickers, flyers, and other materials designed to engage people with Lincoln’s story and role in forming a more perfect union.

The students also built a website: Lincoln250.org. There’s even a Lincoln chatbot you can talk to.

I want the students to understand that the capstone class is about them. I want them to be excited and impassioned about what they want to do in the world.

College seniors tend to think that their first job after college is going to be their dream job. And I tell them, “That’s not always how it is. But you’re going to learn a lot from that first job, so you can figure out where you want to go next.”

Edited and condensed from an interview conducted on Feb. 27, 2026.

Illinois Alumni, Summer 2026