AUT appoints Professor of Marketing Communications

AUT appoints Professor of Marketing Communications

Cristel Antonia Russell PhD (University of Arizona)

Dr Cristel Antonia Russell has been appointed to AUT University as Professor of Marketing Communications in the Faculty of Business.

Professor Russell comes to AUT from San Diego State University where she has spent the past seven years. She has also worked for the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, HEC Paris and the Helsinki School of Economics. She is a native of France.

Professor Russell's extensive portfolio of research on consumer response to marketing communications covers attitudes, beliefs and behaviours. It focuses on messages integrated in the content of entertainment programmes, such as product placement and brand embedding in film, television, songs and videogames.

In her research she seeks insight into the synergy between advertising, entertainment, marketing and interactive television.

"By living in the shadow of Hollywood in Southern California, I better understand the entertainment world and its interconnections with marketing and advertising," she says.

Professor Russell is currently leading a United States National Institute of Health-funded project to test the effects of alcohol portrayals in television series on audiences' beliefs and behaviours regarding alcohol. She uses her research on the effects of product placement on the television audience to inform her public policy work.

Professor Russell says it is important for academics and students to be aware of the societal and environmental impact of business practice.

"I like to think of myself as a consumer advocate and I look forward to applying my research to the issues most salient to New Zealand society," she says.

"There seems to be a lot of energy and entrepreneurial spirit in New Zealand, and at AUT University in particular, and that's attractive to me."

Professor Russell is a member of several editorial review boards, including the Journal of Consumer Research and the Journal of Advertising, and contributor to worldwide journals, including the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Advertising and Marketing Letters.

ENDS

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