John H. Murphy

Joe C. Thompson Centennial Professor in Advertising & Distinguished University Teaching Professor Emeritus, University of Texas

Dr. John H. Murphy's professional experience is on the media side of the industry, where he has worked in many capacities including advertising sales, marketing research, and strategic planning. His research interests include integrated brand promotion campaigns planning and media management with an emphasis on practical applications. He has published three advertising management textbooks and a fourth book titled Integrated Brand Promotion Management. His research articles have appeared in the Journal of Business, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Experimental Education, Journal of Marketing Education, Journal of Consumer Affairs, and Journalism Quarterly, among others.

Dr. Murphy has served on the Board of Directors of the American Advertising Federation, the Board of Directors of both the American Advertising Foundation and the Austin Advertising Federation. He has served as a member of UT's Faculty Council, the University of Texas Press Advisory Committee, the Texas Union, and Texas Student Media. He presently serves as a consultant to the Austin Independent School District focusing on their social and emotional learning initiative and the Tapestry Foundation (an Austin-based non-profit focused on supporting early childhood enhancement programs).

Dr. Murphy is the Program Coordinator of the Vance and Betty Lee Stickell Honors Student Internship Program. Established in 1988 by the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the program matches outstanding honors students from universities around the country with host companies for 10-week internships. The program's permanent endowment was moved to The University of Texas at Austin in 2003. In 2020, as a result of a mutually agreeable split with the AAF, the sole responsibility for the program was moved to UT Austin.  The program is now housed in the Stan Richards School of Advertising & Public Relations at UT which is responsible for the stewardship of the program. The program has placed 340+ honors students in internships over the past 30+ years. 

In the fall of 2016, Dr. Murphy developed the concept of an online video library designed to provide university faculty teaching advertising and public relations access to the insights and views of leaders in the industry. He pitched the idea of such a library to be called “Stan Talks”  to Stan Richards. Mr. Richards immediately liked the idea and set up a three-person group inside his agency to help guide the development of the library. The library of five-minute videos went public with 20 videos in August 2018. The library now has over 50 videos, it has had thousands of views and subscribers to the YouTube channel world-wide.

Dr. Murphy has received 19 awards and recognitions for outstanding teaching. He was elected to UT’s Academy of Distinguished University Teachers in 1998 and was recognized with a $25,000 UT Systems Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (ROTA) for excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2014. In 2017, he was inducted into the Southwest Advertising Hall of Fame, the first and only academic to be so honored.