Steven Grasse '87, CEO of Gyro Worldwide Advertising in Philadelphia, will give a "Viral
Talk" on guerrilla and viral marketing Friday, Nov. 14, at 5 p.m. in the Joyce Hergenhan
Auditorium in Newhouse 3. The talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by
COLAB, an interdisciplinary initiative based in Syracuse University's College of Visual and
Performing Arts, and The NewHouse student group in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public
Communications. Paid parking is available in the University Avenue Garage, the Booth
Garage and the Marion lot.
Grasse, a Pennsylvania native, earned a bachelor's degree in advertising at the Newhouse
School. He worked as a writer at Saatchi & Saatchi in New Zealand and Beber Silverstein
Miami before creating Gyro in 1988. Gyro's first client was MTV; its list now includes RJ
Reynolds' brands Camel and Kool, as well as Prince and Ecco. The agency recently
developed the brand Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and has worked with clients
to create such products as Hendrick's Gin, Sailor Jerry Rum and Marshall McGearty
Tobacco Artisans. Gyro also created Highball Magazine and the clothing lines Sailor Jerry
and g*mart. For more information about Gyro, visit http://www.gyroworldwide.com.
Grasse is author of "Evil Empire: 101 Ways England Ruined the World" (Quirk, 2007) and
the subject of Harriet Bernard-Levy's book "Virus: The Outrageous History of Gyro
Worldwide" (Gold Crown Press, 2008), published in conjunction with the agency's 20th
anniversary.
COLAB is a new interdisciplinary initiative that encourages SU students and faculty to use
their diverse skills and perspectives to solve complex, real-world problems creatively and
collaboratively. Grasse's talk is one component of COLAB's upcoming charrette-a short
but intensive design project-that will be held Nov. 13-16. The charrette will focus on
developing visual tools to help the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce revitalize the
city's Jefferson Row area. Grasse is one of several professionals whose perspective will inform
the charrette participants.
For more information, contact Chris McCray at (315) 443-1476 or chmccray@syr.edu.
