Cleft charity founder, Oscar winner to speak on philanthropy, advertising
Brian Mullaney, president of Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft lip and cleft palette charity, will speak about his experiences in advertising and philanthropy to students in the Joyce Herganhan Auditorium in Newhouse III Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Mullaney, also a 2008 Oscar winner, said he plans to speak about how his advertising background helped him catapult Smile Train to become one of the fastest-growing charities in the world.
Mullaney founded Smile Train in 1999, after which the charity quickly became the largest cleft charity in the world. This year it will provide 125,000 free surgeries to children suffering from cleft palette and cleft lip in some of the world’s poorest countries, Mullaney said.
‘I would like to provide (students) with some real-world feedback of what advertising was like and also tell them about all of the opportunities for communications majors and marketing experts in the nonprofit world, where they desperately need good marketing people,’ he said.
Mullaney won an Oscar in 2008 for a documentary short titled ‘Smile Pinki,’ about a 7-year-old girl who received free surgery from Smile Train and the effect it had on her life. He said he will be handing out free copies of the documentary to anyone who attends his talk and will also bring the Oscar for people to see and hold.
Mullaney said he also hopes to give students some life lessons and talk about his visits to Afghanistan, Somalia and Haiti. He has been to Haiti twice over the past year and a half and will be showing pictures during his talk.
The event is sponsored by the advertising, public relations, and television, radio and film departments.
Kevin O’Neill, an associate professor of advertising, said he asked Mullaney to come because he thought it would be interesting for students to see how Smile Train’s ‘robust advertising campaign’ has helped fuel its success. Smile Train raises millions of dollars a year because of its successful advertising, he said.
O’Neill said he thinks the speech will draw a large-enough crowd to fill the auditorium. Students today are very interested in philanthropy and social responsibility, so they will want to attend, he said.
‘I thought it would be interesting for students to see the effects of advertising in philanthropy,’ O’Neill said.
Published on February 1, 2010 at 12:00 pm
