On August 27th, the awarding ceremony of the Academy Award of Advertising Arts Festival for Chinese College Students (popularly known as "the Academy Award") 2020 Spring Competition was held in Tianjin. Zhang Yang and Chen Jiayu, advertising majors from the School of Media, won gold awards for their project of "Dakshi—Fried Chicken Stimulating the Soul". Feng Yi and Dai Tingting, associate professors from the Department of Advertising, received certificates of honor for their instruction. Teachers and students from the Department of Advertising have won the Academy Award consecutively over the last couple of years.

Approved by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce and sponsored by the China Advertising Association, the Academy Award is the only large-scale national event for college student interested in advertising art. It mainly encourages students to take part in academic discussions, use their creativity and compete in designing assigned advertisements for famous firms. It is also an important platform for many large advertising companies and well-known brand companies to select talent.

The competition lasted half a year and attracted hundreds of thousands of students from more than 1,200 colleges and universities. The collection of works for the competition happened to be during the epidemic. Teachers and students from the Advertising Department once again did such a great job because they made full use of online teaching tools to maintain in-depth communication, overcame many difficulties, and integrated online and offline teaching resources.