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Bob Scarpelli

Bob Scarpelli

Adjunct Lecturer

Bob Scarpelli co-teaches a course called Building Brands with Creative Ideas. His class focuses on the importance of creativity and the power of big ideas to build brands. Bob’s fundamental belief and the foundation of the class is that “creativity is the most powerful force in business.”  

Scarpelli is the former chairman and chief creative officer of DDB Worldwide, one of the largest, most creative and influential advertising agency networks in the world with over 200 offices in more than 90 countries. While at DDB, he helped build numerous individual brands for clients such as McDonald’s, Anheuser-Busch, State Farm, Volkswagen, Philips, General Mills, Kraft, Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Capital One, Dell, Discover Card, Exxon Mobil, Michelin, Audi and SC Johnson among others. He spent 35 of his 37-year career at DDB, beginning as a copywriter in the Chicago office.  

Inspiring ideas that became part of popular culture were at the heart of Scarpelli’s vision for DDB and its clients. He and his teams were responsible for the iconic campaigns “Whassup” for Budweiser and “Real Men of Genius” for Bud Light.