September 3, 2025 | Kelly Youngblood
Penne Heede, a 30-year veteran in the ad industry, is looking forward to bringing her agency expertise to the classroom this fall as a new lecturer in the Charles H. Sandage Department of Advertising.
Heede (MS ’23, strategic brand communication) will be teaching undergraduate and graduate classes including Advertising Design and Direction, Experiential Branding, and Creativity: Concept and Ideation.
More than three decades after Heede started her career with a technical degree in graphic design and worked her way up to creative and strategy director for an elite ad agency in Denver, Colorado, she went back to school to obtain a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary liberal arts.
Heede said she enjoyed the experience so much she was inspired to work towards a formal education in branding to open the door to a career in post-secondary teaching.
Heede was drawn to the strategic brand communication master’s degree Illinois offered due to its innovative focus on the science of branding.
“I loved Illinois’ program because it was a master of science [degree], not of art, and I was impressed with the mix of faculty” she said.
A few months after she graduated with a master’s degree, Heede saw the job posting for advertising lecturer at the College of Media and said, “it just read exactly what all my experiences have been.”
Heede’s teaching philosophy comes from a belief that everyone has their own personalities and way of doing things. She also tries to abide by 13th-century poet Rumi’s famous quote “to be a lamp, a lifeboat, or a ladder” for others.
“I added ‘lawnmower’ because sometimes you’re in the weeds and you just need somebody to go in front of you and make it a little bit easier,” Heede said.
Heede may align her educational approach with the beliefs of an ancient poet, but her views about the changing trends in the advertising industry are anything but archaic.
“I’m psyched by [AI]. If you think about it, spell check was machine learning, and we all are just fine with it. Calculators were once taboo in high school math classes—now we’re okay with it,” she said. “It’s just the evolution of tools that help us.”
Heede also believes a human touch will always be needed in the industry to write, design, and uncover the motivation of consumers.
“[Asking] what inspires a person, what is their motivation towards doing things, what do they love, what do they hate—I really like that [kind of] thinking,” she said.
Heede considered similar questions for a three-year capital campaign she led, which raised $33 million for a 71-mile trail in the Denver region called the High Line Canal.
“I’m very proud of that campaign not only because it was so successful, but also because the trail is an amazing amenity for the region and it’s now protected in perpetuity,” she said.
For Heede, a good ad creates a behavior, whether it motivates someone to donate money, start recycling, or buy a chocolate bar. And sometimes, she said, a good ad will just elicit a strong emotion.
Heede, who is a huge fan of the late musician Prince, said she will never forget the full-page newspaper ad Chevrolet created after the star’s death.
Paying tribute to Prince, the ad featured a picture of a red Corvette with the epitaph: “Baby, that was much too fast. 1958-2016,” referencing lyrics from his 1982 hit, “Little Red Corvette.”
“I’m going to remember that my whole life; it was so good,” Heede said. “That’s what an ad should do. It should make you feel.”
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