An appearance Monday on "HearSay with Cathy Lewis" demonstrated John Ford's expertise in the blurred lines between communication and advertising. It also landed him a new responsibility.

Ford, Eminent Scholar and professor of marketing and international business in Old Dominion's Strome College of Business, was featured on the local noon-hour current affairs program on WHRV public radio.

Guest-hosted by Kerri Furey, the broadcast examined the evolving, high-stakes challenge as advertisers attempt to win the hearts of increasingly skeptical and sophisticated consumers. Co-executive editor of the "Journal of Advertising Research," Ford offered insights into new frontiers in the medium.

Later that afternoon, his phone rang in Constant Hall. Eastern Virginia Medical School faculty member Matt Herman was on the line, with an urgent plea to join a study by EVMS looking at electronic cigarettes.

"He said that the discussion about advertising made him realize that this is an area of expertise that they were lacking on their expert panel," Ford said.

Headed by Dr. Kelli Will, the $445,000 grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth will examine e-cigarette use and develop effective risk communication strategies to reach Virginia youth.

This grant will work with YMCA Youth Leaders to help us better understand youth health behavior related to e-cigarette use and help to develop risk messages and communication strategies to reach this important youth demographic. The expert panel for the grant is the advisory group that is going to help oversee the project.

The expert panel will provide expertise to advise the program, in areas such as health behavior change, risk communication, adolescent development, tobacco and substance abuse use and prevention, marketing and communications and the study's research design. Panel members will also provide additional resources, materials and literature to support the project.

The study runs through June 2018.

To hear a podcast of Ford's appearance on "HearSay with Cathy Lewis," see the WHRV Website.

Ford joined Old Dominion's Strome College of Business in 1985. In 2007, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Academy of Marketing Science for his contributions to the field. In 2012, Ford was named an Eminent Scholar by Old Dominion University, in recognition of his record of publication in the world's leading business journals.