Bowing his head, Jeff Goodby stood onstage as MU Chancellor Mun Choi hung the Missouri Honor Medal around his neck before his peers and other fellow journalists.
Goodby, a 2004 inductee of the Creative Hall of Fame, joined photographer Ami Vitale and The Marshall Project as the latest recipients of the highest level of distinction within the fields of journalism and strategic communication from MU.
Recognized at the annual Missouri Honor Medal banquet Oct. 19, Goodby spoke to MU students directly in his acceptance speech.
“It’s clear that journalism, a pursuit of a shared truth — which is what we do — is in great danger now,” he said during the speech. “That’s very hard to combat. … It’s a fight that must be fought, and I’m happy to say that the future leaders of that fight go to classes [at MU] every day.”
Goodby started his advertising career at J. Walter Thompson before meeting Rich Silverstein in 1983. The two would go on to co-found Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, where they would later create numerous award-winning campaigns, including the famous “Got Milk?” campaign.
“People’s minds are changed emotionally and not rationally,” Goodby said. “I think that [advertising] is unusual because it combines both traditional journalism and the idea of persuasion — changing people’s minds. … I know journalism is not supposed to do that, so it’s nice to combine those things so that you know the difference between the two and when they’re being combined in a bad way.”
Jeff goodby, 2022 recipient of missouri honor medal
Following the success of the “Got Milk?” campaign, GSP continued to grow, eventually creating multiple Super Bowl advertisements. Most recently, the agency has been named Fast Company’s 2021 “Most Innovative Agency in the World” and Campaign Magazine’s 2020 Agency of the Year.
“I’m very lucky,” Goodby said. “I work with people that make things around me that are amazing. I try to welcome those things into the world. … I’ve learned that the higher you go in the creative business, the more you serve the people that work for you … [you] try to make their ideas come forward [and] come to life.”
All three recipients had a chance to be recognized onstage for their work. Vitale, a wildlife and endangered species photographer for National Geographic, was honored for her ability to live among her subjects, sometimes for weeks at a time, to tell their story visually.
Susan Chira, the editor-in-chief of The Marshall Project, accepted the award on behalf of the organization, recognized for its efforts in increasing national urgency regarding the nation’s criminal justice system.
Goodby, Vitale and The Marshall Project now join a group of more than 300 other award recipients, dating back 92 years to Percy Bullen, E.W. Stephens, Ward Neff, Buenos Aires La Prensa and The New York Times, who first received the award in 1930.
At the banquet, university professors, local journalists and Missouri School of Journalism students heard from all three 2022 recipients. One student was freshman Walter Williams Scholar Ellie Weien.
“I had no idea what to expect going into [the banquet],” she said. “When I got there, [there were] lots of great opportunities to meet faculty and even the people who were being presented the medals, so that was really cool.”
After the dinner and the ceremony, the medal recipients mingled with attendees, answering questions, introducing themselves and handing out contact cards to students.
“Going out of it, I got a better idea of how to get far in the industry,” Weien said. “People tell you it’s who you know, not technically always what you know, [and] that definitely stuck. I feel like it boosted my confidence in a sense … to talk to someone who has been in the industry and [who could] tell stories and give advice.”
University faculty select Honor Medal recipients on the basis of lifetime achievement. Goodby, now adding the award to his resume, praised the next generation of journalism students at MU — hoping to see someone continue the art of advertising in the way he did.
“I think that there are a bunch of people … to take it from here, when it comes to what I do,” Goodby said. “I think that there’s an America here where, obviously the country is divided, but the worst thing is that people feel like there’s a story beneath the story that they’re not getting. Places like [MU] can help unearth that and keep it from happening.”
Jeff Goodby, 2022 recipient of Missouri Honor Medal
Weien, whose journalism mentor invited her to the banquet, also had high praise for the event and the benefits that came with it — something she plans to utilize throughout her time at the journalism school.
“I really am [glad I went],” Weien said. “I feel like I would have been missing out on a lot if I hadn’t. … Just to hear all of the qualifications [of the journalism school] and to be like, ‘Wow, I’m here. I’m a part of that group.’. … Being able to go to [the banquet] and experience that was really exciting.”
Edited by Emma Flannery | eflannery@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Jacob Richey