Troy McCasland was the ad manager for the Daily Lobo in 1985. He began his work in ad sales in 1981, and immediately became fond of the Daily Lobo as a community.
“It was a fraternity, it was a business organization, it was an education,” McCasland said. “It was like everything all wrapped up into one. It was truly the best part of my whole time at UNM.”
McCasland was fascinated by the vast archives of old Daily Lobo issues and the rich history of the newspaper. He recalled seeing Lobo coverage of anti-Vietnam protests when National Guardsmen struck students with bayonets.
“I literally watched the history of UNM unfold before my eyes, as told by generations of journalists and ad execs in their stories and in their ads,” McCasland said.
Noting that many companies that had been ignoring his calls about advertising with the Lobo had previously advertised with the paper, McCasland was inspired to run historical ads in the satirical April Fools’ Day issue.
“It was like a light bulb went off, and I thought, ‘Why not April? April Fools’ is coming up, and that's a big issue for the Daily Lobo,’” McCasland said. “And I got this idea to run the old ads as they appeared in the Daily Lobo in the ‘20s and ‘30s and ‘40s and ‘60s.”
According to McCasland, the then-ad manager was less than enthused by the archival ad idea, but the then-business manager and potential advertisers were on board.
“In that instant, I learned the power of leaving a good message — a good, detailed message,” McCasland said. “Every single customer called me back, and I just started selling this special issue that I created without permission.”
Now, McCasland himself is a part of history; the ads of the ‘80s look very different from the ads of today. For example, the Lobo used to regularly sell ad space to cigarette companies, McCasland said.
“When I was a kid, we used to buy cigarettes at the roller skating rink by putting two quarters into a vending machine,” McCasland recalled. “And there were no laws against kids smoking. In fact, at my junior high, when I was in junior high, I had a smoking pass, and I could smoke with my parents’ permission.”
What we sell is not only different now, but so is how we sell it. McCasland noted the ways he has seen the business model of advertising and print journalism change. After working for the Daily Lobo, McCasland founded several companies, including United Reporting, a direct mail service for lawyers, and AgentSquared, an automated real estate marketing platform.
“Craigslist single-handedly decimated the whole newspaper industry. Overnight, all the revenue was gone,” McCasland recounted. “And now what you're selling is a digital copy, and you're selling impressions.”
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McCasland encouraged people to look at advertising as a way to understand the past.
“Some things are the same,” McCasland said. “You're still selling branding, and you're still trying to convince people to respond to an ad.”
Addison Fulton is the culture editor for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
