Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Doug McKinlay, a 71-year-old ad professor at Brigham Young University, worked as an unpaid intern at dallas agency Richards Group over the summer.

Would your agency ever consider hiring a senior citizen for a summer internship?

In a business that's obsessed with hiring the hottest young talent boasting digital experience, most shops would probably balk. But 71-year old Doug McKinlay -- an ad professor at Brigham Young University and former agency owner -- took a chance anyway, and proposed an internship to Dallas-based Richards Group this summer.

"The industry is moving at Mach One and academia isn't moving nearly that fast," Mr. McKinlay said, comparing the pace of changes to advertising curriculum to "the speed of a receding glacier...