The Department of Communication offers three electives focused on Advertising: CO235 Advertising, CO310 Advertising Campaign Planning, and CO401 Visual Design.
CO235 Advertising
This course is designed as an overview of the advertising industry which covers topics from marketing strategies to the group development of an advertising campaign. You will learn about the different economic and social roles played by advertising and explore the kinds of critical and analytical decision making that underlie specific advertising campaigns.CO310 Advertising Campaign Planning
Utilizing integrated marketing communication principles, students will prepare an advertising campaign for the American Advertising Federation's national competition. The course will augment students' abilities to coordinate, strategize, and execute a final campaign through collaborative critical analysis and creative structuring. Students interested must receive approval from the instructor and have completed CO235.CO401 Visual Design
This course is meant to be a practical application of study in visual communication theory and replaces and expands on materials previously included under Ad Copy and Layout. Content focuses on basic communication principles of visual design from winning ad campaigns to Feng Shui, with an emphasis on effective construction of images, the impact of color, line vectors, space, and balance. Assignments involve execution of layouts in advertising (newspaper, magazine, web page), public relations (image, integrated marketing communications) and personal and public environmental design.
These courses are designed to foster a sense of professionalism and visual ethics, to utilize your broad liberal arts and communication background in a new way, to give you a degree of command in visual language and to raise your critical awareness of advertising strategies and techniques.
Those who wish to continue to build creative skills and to develop the creative ad portfolio necessary for the position of art director should know that further study will be necessary to compete with Graphic Arts majors in the field. (In agencies, recent graduates often work in Media or Account Services while taking creative graphic design and commercial art courses at night.) They must also become proficient in such professional computer software as Adobe Illustrator, Quark Xpress, and Adobe Photoshop.
Students interested in becoming creative copywriters must develop impeccable grammar and writing mechanics; master material covered in such texts as Strunk and White's Elements of Style and MLA's Line By Line, and work to develop a smooth, concise, genial writing style appropriate to advertising copy.
Students who wish to work within marketing departments or as account managers within agencies might opt to take various electives in the School of Management, or even cross-register for courses at other universities.
All students interested in a career in Advertising should take advantage of all internship opportunities available to them and begin to develop a collection of materials for inclusion in a professional portfolio before graduation.
To understand how public images are built and maintained through non-advertising means:
CO240 Public Relations
CO245 Advanced Public Relations
CO449 Crisis Communication
To understand how visual messages are perceived and created to influence attitudes and behavior:
CO377 Visual Communication Theory
CO379 Advanced Visual Theory & Aesthetics
To understand the importance and scope of ethical decision making in media and advertising:
CO249 Communication Law
CO250 Mass Communication Ethics
CO251 Gender and Media
CO451 Gender Roles and Communication
To understand how the characteristics of media impact message form and content:
CO213 Fundamentals of Audio I
CO214 Fundamentals of Audio II
CO215 Soundcasting Media
CO222 Studio Television Production
CO223 Television Field Production
CO280 Broadcast Programming and Promotion
CO372 Mass Communication Theory
To understand how people think, talk, and understand each other:
CO253 Interpersonal Communication
CO285 Cultural Diversity in the Media
CO429 Globalization and the Media
CO442 Intercultural Communication
CO485 Advanced Intercultural Studyabroad.com
To develop essential writing skills:
CO227 Broadcast Writing
CO230 News Writing
CO231 Feature Writing
CO233 Advanced Journalism
SAMPLE COURSE SEQUENCE
(in addition to CO010, CO020, CO030 and CO350):
Distributed requirements:Electives (any three)
- Cluster (one required): CO249 Communication Law or CO250 Mass Communication Ethics
- Theory (one required): CO372 Mass Communication Theory or CO377 Visual Communication Theory
- Writing intensive seminars (two required): CO426 Television and Society, CO448 Television Criticism, CO451 Gender Roles and Communication, or CO463 Media and Popular Culture
- CO235 Advertising
- CO240 Public Relations
- CO245 Advanced Public Relations
- CO310 Advertising Campaign Planning
- CO401 Visual Design
- CO520 Media Workshop (internship)
Through advertising courses and other departmental and A&S electives, many communication majors have developed the preliminary skills to get and to succeed in jobs in the advertising field, both in ad agencies and on "the Client Side" in private companies and public institutions. What top executives appreciate most in job applicants is evidence of a "well-stocked mind" characteristic of a solid liberal arts education; enthusiasm for the Advertising field; personal initiative; and a willingness to work hard, long hours in pursuit of a goal.
Agency entry-level positions include such jobs as: Assistant Account Executive, Assistant Art Director, Junior Copywriter, Assistant Media Researcher or Planner, or Traffic Assistant. On the client side, both Marketing and Communication Departments in businesses and institutions require workers with skills in advertising to communicate with employees through programs and newsletters, to deal with media, to recruit new clients, and to inform the public of their goals, products, and services.
All students interested in a career in advertising are encouraged to take advantage of internship opportunities available to you through the department (see "Communication Internships" handout or contact Christine Caswell in 21 Campanella Way 515).