The advertising major is an interdisciplinary undergraduate major in the School of Media and Communication. The major provides students with the foundational conceptual and professional skills required in a rapidly changing media environment. These skills include contemporary audience research and analysis, strategic writing and messaging, and media planning and selection in both traditional and digital media. The major’s strong experiential learning component develops student mastery in professional advertising and creative business and communication problem-solving in commercial and non-profit settings.
The advertising major consists of a six-course core, a two-course internship, four additional required courses, a three-course concentration, and a capstone experience. The core provides a strong foundation of theory and practice in different facets of the industry incorporating perspectives from Advertising, Communication, Media Production and Studies. Marketing and Graphic Design, to provide a strong context in marketing-driven and graphic design of creative advertising. A minor is required.
Learning Outcomes
Students are expected to achieve the following learning outcomes:
- Explain the different functions, regulations, and roles of advertising in business marketing, the media industry, and society;
- Utilize consumer behavior and persuasion theories with audience research to select target audience, develop advertising campaigns’ and evaluate their effectiveness with appropriate data analytics and metrics;
- Write advertising copy, understand graphic design principles and develop ethical advertising campaigns and strategies across multiple media platforms including social media for both commercial and non-profit organizations;
- Apply knowledge of the strengths and limitations of different marketing communication media and integrate them in advertising campaigns and media advertising sales.
With the advertising major, students may choose between two concentrations to best suit a student’s talents and interests. The student’s concentration options are - creative/production or management/research.
The Creative/Production concentration prepares students for careers in copy writing, print and digital advertising or commercial production, webmaster for commercial web sites or social media manager.
The Management/Research concentration prepare students for careers in advertising sales, account management, account planning, advertising media planning and advertising research.
For specific courses for those concentrations, please review the check sheet for the major. This major requires students to take a minor.