Michael Bernacchi, popular UDM marketing professor, dies at age 83
For decades, Michael Bernacchi was the go-to guy in Detroit to find out more about everything from the branding impact of the Dream Cruise to Beyonce’s role as a marketing force.
Whether you were a student at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he was a longtime marketing professor, or a journalist at a newspaper or TV station, Bernacchi was ready and eager to explain the intricacies and strategies of the endless advertising campaigns and commercials that bombard consumers.
His outgoing personality and sense of fun was balanced by his keen insight. As he told the Free Press in a 1993 story about skin-baring ads like Mark Wahlberg’s spots for Calvin Klein briefs, “I’ve always looked at advertising as a bellwether measure of what’s going on both socially and psychologically.”
Bernacchi died at his Huntington Woods home on Dec. 21 at the age of 83, according to his obituary posted on the Wessels & Wilk Funeral Home website. The online tribute to the educator, who taught at the University of Detroit Mercy from 1973 to his retirement in 2019, began as you might expect for someone who typically wore Chicago sports team jerseys and jackets for his TV appearances: “The world’s foremost Chicago Cubs fan has joined Harry Caray, Hack Wilson and Ernie Banks in the afterlife.”
A native of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Bernacchi was a popular, well-known presence at the university, where he taught a variety of courses over the years on topics like marketing management, consumer behavior, marketing communications and sports and entertainment marketing.
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““He was quite a presence, a big personality. You did not fall asleep in his class. He was lively, boisterous, really tried to make it fun, really challenged students. … (He) kept you very, very engaged,” said Dennis Carlesso, who took classes taught by Bernacchi for both his undergraduate and MBA degrees from the University of Detroit Mercy.
Carlesso, who is now vice president of university advancement for his alma mater, says Bernacchi cared about how students were faring in his classes and often gave them a shot at real-world experience by involving them in his projects as researchers.
“Mike was not afraid to challenge you, and if he thought there was any kind of dismissiveness or disrespect, he would correct that right away. The relationship was honest. You knew what you were going to get from him. You knew what he expected from you. He wanted you to be better,” said Carlesso, who remembers how Bernacchi would assign “massive papers” and then carefully read them and remember the content.
For more than 20 years, Bernacchi wrote a marketing newsletter called “Under the Mike-Roscope” that examined trends and issues in marketing. He also was known for his “Super Bowl Ad Nauseum” event, a discussion and analysis of the Big Game’s commercials aimed at high school students.
When he wasn’t teaching marketing, Bernacchi often was talking about the art and science of it with local and national media members. He made many appearances on Detroit’s TV newscasts, especially around Super Bowl time. At a national level, he was interviewed by cable news networks, broadcast network news shows, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and TV Guide, among other outlets.
For reporters with tough deadlines at the Free Press and the Detroit News, Bernacchi was a friendly, reliable source who would return calls in a timely manner and field questions on a variety of topics with flair. At one point, he served as a judge for the Free Press automotive leadership awards.
A 2014 story about Bernacchi that ran in a UDM student publication described him as “a very involved family man” who often bonded with his children and grandchildren through his love of sports. “My kids are who I am,” he said.
Bernacchi is survived by his ex-wife, seven children and 18 grandchildren. A funeral mass will be held Jan. 25 at Our Mother of Perpetual Help Catholic Church in Oak Park.
Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at [email protected].
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