Super Bowl commercial expert Pat Burke to be alumni speaker at Media Convocation

Now the executive creative director at the Los Angeles–based ad agency Special U.S., Burke most recently oversaw the 2026 Uber Eats Super Bowl campaign, bringing his total number of Super Bowl commercials created to 18.

Although Burke didn’t originally set out to become a leader in Super Bowl advertising, he says he’s grateful for the success and opportunities the path has brought.

“It wasn’t my intention to build my career around the Super Bowl, but that definitely led to [my current job] opportunity and even things like the U of I wanting me to speak at convocation,” he said.

Burke, a three-time commercial Emmy nominee and winner of a Cannes Lions Grand Prix, spent the first 30 years of his career in the Chicago advertising industry working at several different agencies, including DDB Chicago, Ogilvy & Mather, and Highdive Advertising.

While at DDB, Burke helped create two Super Bowl commercials that scored in the top five of the USA Today AdMeter ratings. During his six years at Highdive, he made six commercials that landed in the top-five AdMeter spots.

In 2025, Lay’s “The Little Farmer” scored #2 on the USA Today AdMeter. In 2020, Rocket Mortgage’s “Comfortable” starring Jason Momoa scored #5 and Jeep’s “Groundhog Day” with Bill Murray won first place.  

Burke said that collaborating with Murray on the Jeep commercial, a parody of the 1993 film, was the highlight of his career.

“I didn’t think we’d ever get [Murray] because he doesn’t really do advertising or commercials, and doesn’t have an agent, so he’s hard to reach,” Burke said. “Even if you want to get him to [make] a movie there’s a famous process you have to go through where you send your script to a P.O. Box in Charleston, South Carolina, and then you just wait, and you hope that he gets back to you.”

Murray would eventually see the script and agree to do the commercial just a few weeks before the Super Bowl.

“As far as celebrity encounters for me, it doesn’t get any better than Bill Murray,” Burke said.

Another career-defining moment for Burke was the 2012 release of the “Skittlespox” commercial, which he crafted for Skittles while working at DDB Chicago.

The commercial sparked some controversy among critics who found the premise odd, and even Burke admits it may have run for too many years. But the ad is still the highest-testing Skittles commercial in brand history and a pop-culture phenomenon inspiring countless online re-creations and Halloween costumes.

For Burke, seeing an idea he’s worked on for months come to fruition is the best part of his job.

“You come up with an idea that you think is amazing, and so often, it doesn’t end up getting made, or if it does, it gets changed—death by a thousand cuts,” Burke said. “If something does make it all the way through and it gets made in a way that you pictured it, seeing all [the work] come to life is definitely the fun part.”

Burke’s return to campus will bring him closer to the western suburbs of Chicago where he grew up. Burke, who described his younger self as a “creative kid,” came to the University of Illinois to study art but then switched his major to advertising.   

He credits a class with Peter Sheldon, senior lecturer of advertising, for having a major impact on him and his future career.

“Peter is just a brilliant creative himself and so we all learned a ton from him. He had us all inspired and feeling like we could actually do this for a living,” Burke said. “A bunch of us [in his class] ended up getting jobs and succeeding in the industry, and are still working today, so he’s got a good legacy.”

Burke keeps in touch with Sheldon and has returned to his class over the years to give feedback on student portfolios.

A nature enthusiast who enjoys fly fishing, camping, hiking, and backpacking, Burke has also published many pieces in outdoor magazines like The Drake, a grassroots journal about flyfishing.

Burke also serves on the board of directors for Chicago Voyagers, a non-profit organization serving Chicago’s at-risk youth through trauma-informed outdoor/adventure-therapy programming.

Burke encourages young graduates, especially those entering a creative field like advertising, to focus on simplicity in their work.

“Focus on a simple idea—those are what resonate. Just stick to it and always keep that as your North Star.”