Tom Robinson teaches advertising and specializes in account planning, advertising principles and advertising strategy and research. He holds a Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Southern Mississippi, an M.A. in communication from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and a B.S. in marketing from Northern Arizona University.
His research centers on the portrayal of older individuals in advertising and the media. He spends most of his time studying and gathering information on older stereotypes, portrayals of older individuals in the media and determining what images older individuals like and dislike in the media. His other areas of research include advertising and the Internet, effects theories in advertising, and sports advertising. His research has been published in Educational Gerontology, the Journal of Advertising Education and Communication Education.
Robinson’s research gained media attention in 2008 when he steered away from the portrayal of older individuals and focused on the impact the portrayal of body image in children’s sitcoms. The article, which ran in the June issue of Body Image, was co-written by fellow professor Mark Callister and Tahlea Jankoski a graduate student.