Challenges Facing the Field

Notable Opportunities & New Dimensions

Philosophical Foundations

The Balance of Theory and Practice

The Call for an Innovative Research Mission

Toward a New Definition of Advertising

On Ethics and Critical Studies:

Relevance for Professional Growth

The Multicultural Society

New Perspectives in Traditional Areas of Study

The Future Role of Media Planning

The Role of Interactive Media

Teaching Systemic Approaches to Creativity

Account Planning as Essential Paradigm

Corporate Communication as Partnership

The Challenge of Globalization

Critical Structural Issues for the Discipline

Issues Particular to Degree Levels:

Undergraduate, Master’s, and Doctoral Studies

Architecting Delivery Systems of the Future
Current and Future Funding of Higher Education in Advertising

Questions that Define Our Direction in the Future?

Conclusion

Foreword

As a cohort of scholars leading a burgeoning academic field, advertising professors and their programs around the world face uncompromised change and opportunity in the next several years. The Faculty of the Department of Advertising at The University of Texas at Austin believes it incumbent upon us all to address these issues of change in a formal manner. This White Paper represents our collective vision for the direction of advertising education.•

It is the objective of this White Paper to explore the current status of advertising education and suggest directions for its short- and long-term future. The paper also represents willingness on the part of the faculty to address critical obstacles and opportunities. The authors do so in the hope that others may enlarge upon these themes and, in fact, help us to move forward with knowledge of their institutional experiences and thoughtful discussion of many of the issues raised. The reader will find a diversity of viewpoints offered here; one of the aspects of a great university environment is that it provides a forum for all views to be represented and heard.

We have attempted to be comprehensive in this discussion. Topics ranging from past problems in advertising education to specialized issues in degree-level programs and the unique opportunities posed by certain curricular areas are covered here, as well as the very practical and pressing challenges in funding advertising education. We explore the issues inherent in teaching contemporary media usage and impact, creative and account planning strategy, critical and consumer studies, and integrated marketing. A special emphasis is given to the opportunities and challenges of the Internet and its impact on advertising. Importantly, we include a call for the innovative research mission within our discipline and frame what that means for the intellectual growth of the field. Other challenges of an enduring nature are discussed, such as striking the balance between theory and practice in the curriculum.

Clearly, we believe it is in the long-term as well as short-term interest of advertising education to embrace neither theory nor practice as sole dogma; rather, we see theory and practice merging to form a rigorous, relevant basis for educational programs. In fact, our Department of Advertising has adopted as its fundamental unifying theme, “Theory x Practice.” It is the hope of the authors that you find this theme evident in the thoughts expressed throughout this paper, and that they are helpful to you in your work with students in the years ahead.

We remain thankful for engaging classroom discussion with thoughtful students and colleagues, for enlightening interaction with industry leaders, and for the important conversations that take place at conferences and over e-mail we share with our colleagues from around the world. All have informed the work collected here.

Department of Advertising Faculty

The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas

Spring 2000

Thoughts about the Future of

Advertising Education

This White Paper first addresses historical foundations of advertising education and frames subsequent discussion with An Assessment of Advertising Education. The heart of the paper is then comprised of three major discussions. The Philosophical Foundations section explores the theory/practice curriculum, the evolving definition of advertising, advertising in a technologically driven world, and social and ethical issues to be addressed in a program of study. The New Perspectives section offers expert discussion of curricular units such as media, creative, marketing communication, management, account planning, and research. The Critical Issues & Opportunities discussion outlines what decisions advertising education architects must make in the near future.

Analyzing the Current State of the Field

An Assessment of Advertising Education

Advertising education in institutions of higher learning continues to evolve since its beginnings in the first decades of the 20^th century when courses in the discipline were offered by professors of English. Advertising programs are now fully developed; many have departmental status at some of the finest universities in the United States. Yet there is work to be done. To begin the discussion of what should be accomplished in the future, we first turn to the past.

The first Department of Advertising was founded by Dr. C. H. Sandage at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1959, an event coincidental with the beginning of the College of Communications there. The department had grown from the melding of faculties from the marketing department and journalism school interested in advertising. Earlier, it had been named a Division of Advertising in the new College of Journalism and Communications. Departmental status was a new standard for the field.

In 1999, the Department of Advertising at UT-Austin celebrated its 25^th year of existence as a separate unit within the College of Communication, although advertising has been taught at The University since the early 1900’s. While both departments noted here are still young compared to the more traditional departmental disciplines (e.g. English, Law or History), nearly a half-century of experience has formed structured and mature departments in the discipline of advertising. Other notable departments and programs have grown over the last two decades as advertising educators grew the discipline: for example, University of Georgia, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Florida at Gainesville, University of Oregon, Michigan State University, University of Alabama, Syracuse University, and Virginia Commonwealth University. Indeed, there are now more departments of advertising at more major universities than ever before. The year 2000 edition of Where Shall I Go to Study Advertising and Public Relations? Indicates that 4,933 bachelor’s, 499 master’s and 22 PhD degrees were awarded in the US in 1998. By the count of this study, there are 154 colleges and universities in the US offering advertising programs. More students study in these departments than previously has been the case and the number appears to be growing as indicated by the above study which has been conducted annually for over twenty years.

The size and stature of faculties in advertising has grown also, with endowed chairs and professorships dedicated to the discipline at various universities. The Journal of Advertising and other scholarly publications dedicated to the field now exist where previously no respected journals informed the discipline. Students now take degrees and specialization in undergraduate and graduate advertising programs of study, including doctoral work encompassing a wide array of specialties. Undoubtedly, the academic pursuit of advertising knowledge and theory has grown from a subset of business and journalism to an organized and respected field of inquiry and scholarship.

This continued strong scholarly approach is vital to the area: the relationship that great advertising has to the cultural moment is nurtured by a comprehensive liberal arts education. Our Colleges and Universities continue to be the best source for such knowledge and its meaningful presentation. For these reasons, we must continually update our curriculum and our approach to this changing discipline in order to remain relevant.

Agents of Change

A primary goal of this White Paper is to facilitate growth of our field. Though it evolved relatively quickly into an academic discipline tied to a growing industry, the last decade of advertising education has shown a paradoxical nature. Because the merging of academic tradition and industry innovation often results -- especially in this era of technological change -- in a clash of cultures, curricular changes reflecting technological and industry shifts happen slowly, their move through institutional bureaucracy often inordinately lengthy. This situation has fostered the competitive rise of entrepreneurial professional schools for development of creative talent, the 1980’s-driven MBA insurgence into the client-side and agency management areas, and the breeding of small specialized polishing schools for the study of account planning, account management, and interactive messaging.

Rather than drive innovation within the ranks of the academy, advertising professors have often rationalized the reality of the academy’s slow process. Three fundamental reasons exist as to why we need address this commonly accepted principle that “things move very slowly in an academic environment." First, we have a fiduciary and moral responsibility to our students to see that all that can be done to maximize the relevance of their education is being done. Innovation must live alongside developed theory in the classroom. Second, with the advent of Internet time, traditional rates of change are clearly a thing of the past and the speed with which new developments become pervasive within the advertising industry needs to be acknowledged. Finally, the ability of other entities and institutions to deliver current, relevant education may not be so encumbered and the marketplace will see to it that short-sighted college and university structures suffer for their acceptance of monolithic, slow-moving administrative decisions. One of the purposes of this White Paper is to encourage our colleagues to work actively to modify the existing framework, to seek timely innovation within the academic structure.

Fundamentally, the greatest challenge taking place in the field of advertising education is that the larger domain of advertising is in a state of fundamental change. That is, advertising is being redefined, remediated, and reassessed by the industry and by the culture at large. As such fundamental shifts occur, educators are asked to redefine and assess their expertise and approach to the field. This creates a framework for, at best, phenomenal innovation and growth of knowledge; in the worst case, such change leads to confusion, mediocrity in teaching and research, and a professorial cohort losing their common vision of the field.

As the content providers and designers of the advertising educational process, the importance of our work needs to have a higher level of political and business awareness than it has in the past so that we may impact our scholarship and the advertising profession appropriately. Leaving this visionary role to others –- other communication or business disciplines, academic administrators, or accrediting organizations, for example -- at this stage of the development of our profession would be in error. If we agree to work only in existing frameworks and with status quo mentality, the perspectives established over the past fifty years of academic research and teaching will be lost or seriously marginalized. Administrative partners in the academic hierarchy need to be informed and kept current of the pace of competitive activities and the demands that industry places upon our institution’s graduates so that they work with us as change agents. Likewise, our duty as scholars studying a changing field should be participatory in nature; in this sense, the advertising professorial cohort make innovation happen rather than simply observe its existence.

Challenges Facing the Field

Certain issues prove important in understanding what students and educators discern as pivotal to the advertising education experience. The purpose of the following section of the paper is to identify and discuss important issues impacting development of advertising education over the last twenty years of the 20^th century. These issues then frame subsequent philosophical and perspective discussions of advertising education. In the following sections of the paper –- Philosophical Foundations and New Perspectives –- the issues discussed here will be revisited via a closer inspection of curricular areas. Let us first examine those areas less pleasing to us than we would like that require attention from our field.

Competing Emphases & Programs Promote Conflict

Widespread interests in advertising as a field of study often divide the resources of the University and set up competing entities. Business and marketing programs, for example, often offer advertising courses with comparable content to that provided in an advertising department or program, usually paring away aspects of communication theory and strategic thinking and execution. Interdepartmental jealousies and conflicts within student cohorts often result. Moreover, schools and departments of journalism –- often the home to advertising sequences –- seem to have difficulty tolerating advertising as a scholarly discipline and as a fellow discipline with the communication domain. This situation parallels the often strained relationships inherent in balancing objectivity and profit in traditional editorial / advertising department discussions. When such antagonism becomes institutionalized over decades, the result is often seen in lack of funding, lack of respect, and lack of resources for the discipline of advertising.

Accreditation Attempts Lack Relevance

Such curricular and disciplinary issues encourage many advertising faculty members to consider accreditation or certification processes as means of offering solid evidence of training or accomplishment. Properly designed and with the support of one of the major professional organizations the accreditation indicator of programmatic expertise would speak to that program's relevance to the marketplace, helping establish the discipline within the University as well. Yet historically, accreditation procedures have been cobbled together from other disciplines such as journalism or mass communication and have continually failed to address relevant issues particular to the scope of advertising education. To the point, the Association for education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) accreditation process overlooks the growth and changing nature of the advertising field and dismisses advertising study as a subset of mass communication and journalism programs. By taking this stand through implication and process, the AEJMC accreditation label offers little substance for growing acclaimed advertising expertise in students and faculty.

Curricular Emphasis on Advertising Agencies

Ignores Other Industry Opportunities

As advertising continues to pervade our American culture, advertising curricula tend to be stimulated by this notable trend. Our society accepts annual television shows featuring the funniest or the most respected television commercials. Major events like the Super Bowl have become an international showcase for the latest and most elaborate television ads. Agency founders and creative talent have achieved a level of media exposure unknown to advertising professionals during the past decades. Perhaps it is in that context that college and university courses often appear to over-emphasize the importance of the creative advertising agency and appear to ignore other critical components of the total communications system.

Given that the majority of beginning jobs for advertising graduates is with media purveyors, advertisers and suppliers and not with advertising agencies, this skewed orientation has done an injustice to our students and our support base. Media outlets and advertisers have been strong supporters of advertising education, yet students are often left with the impression that they have failed if they do not work for an ad agency. Faculty and textbooks coverage contribute to this over-emphasis of agency perspective. At the same time, there has been little coverage of service, non-profit or business-to-business advertising in academic programs.

Industry & Academy Relationships

Often Grow Shallow Roots

Solid established participative relationships between colleges and universities and their industry counterparts –- agencies, media entities, and client-side corporate advertising producers -- are rare. Further, relationships established often have relied more on guest speakers and scholarship appropriation from industry than true shared discovery and innovative projects. At its most negative, conventional wisdom in many agencies is that practical and applied aspects of the business are frequently ignored -- or worse, unknown -- in university courses.

Though many agencies and industry outlets provide valuable service and support to the academy and its students (See Notable Opportunities, Strong Industry Support, p. 12), the relationship is often an uneasy one where both are viewed as different species with different goals and needs. Academics have not been aggressively tapping into the wealth of information and opportunity available from industry, nor have they communicated well their own intent and expertise. Notably, many industry professionals have never been educated – through conversation or more formal procedures -- on the strengths of the advertising degree, the expertise and research interests of specific faculty, and the scope of discovery happening in advertising coursework.

At the same time, industry (not as a collective, but often in individual stances) seems to take a dim view of advertising curricula, oftentimes decrying professorial expertise as well as critical and theoretical study of advertising. Some advertising professionals indicate that they see little value in studying advertising in an academic setting, a few going so far as to indicate that they are not interested in hiring graduates from advertising programs. For example, the widely respected advertising folk hero, David Ogilvy has gone on record questioning the value of advertising education in a university setting, explaining that the insulated environment and tunnel vision approach dissipates the sense of intellectual curiosity needed to communicate well.

Creative Theory & Execution

Viewed As Trade School Mentality

Though the basis of good advertising has been its effective strategic and creative execution, advertising programs –- already suffering the slings and arrows of fellow liberal arts academics questioning the field as a scholarly discipline –- have long treaded gingerly around the creative issue. Courses in programmed copywriting and formulaic art direction in many institutions (often the sum total of creative courses offered) are relegated to the second tier of coursework, after the work of management and quantification is completed. As the field of research in creativity and organizational innovation expanded throughout many fields in the 1980s, more opportunity existed for creativity to become a rigorous and relevant field of study that not only complemented the advertising curriculum, but helped to define it after breakthrough work in the 1960s. Few advertising programs have embraced the concept of creativity as a foundational concept ripe for scholarly exploration. Few university courses offer the possibility of strong creative work competitive enough for the best agencies in the country. Few curricular strategies call for the integrated system of account planners and creatives and managers working together. Certainly, the careful study of creative theory has not been emphasized in undergraduate and graduate programs; yet the opportunity presents itself in both curricula.

Ongoing Dilemma of Graduate Studies Promotion

Shows Lack of Focus, No Clear Message

Due partially to the small number of universities offering a graduate degree in advertising, the Master of Arts (MA) in advertising has been a tough sell to employers. The Masters of Business Administration (MBA) has been the coin of the advertising industry realm. While employers understand and have been willing to pay for MBAs, they have been puzzled by the concept of an MA in advertising, thus marginalizing its stature in the career process. If the profession is to grow and develop rigorously, this graduate degree should be of particular value in developing that strong cadre of intellectually honed professionals, in much the same way business programs have done with the MBA degree. Advertising educators have not developed a strong promotional effort to bring the strengths of the degree and its constituents to the attention of industry.

Finding the Best Faculty Additions

Often A Frustrating Task

Professors of advertising have traditionally come from marketing or mass communication backgrounds, or have had long experience in industry ranks before they turned to the academic life. Now, as doctoral students from business, mass communication, and advertising programs are graduated and search for positions, the question becomes one of finding potential faculty members who have unique combinations of area expertise coupled with a thorough understanding of industry realities. Unlike many traditional academic disciplines (history or law), advertising professors rarely succeed when they are armed only with theoretical knowledge and have no connection with the opportunities of the applied field of advertising. Unfortunately, realities of the typical academic system have little formal regard (i.e. tenure and promotion platforms) for industry experience over traditional research and publication.

Similarly, the search for qualified non-tenure track faculty is difficult. Finding adjunct professors and lecturers who possess industry savvy and affinity for classroom teaching is a sizeable task. When they are found, it is disheartening that adjunct and lecturer salaries –- along with respect from academic administration used to dealing in Ph.D.-related contexts -- are often not commensurate with the teaching tasks performed. On the other hand, many adjunct positions are filled with people placed there because they have worked in industry, not because they are skilled teachers who passionately invest in the process of education.

Arguably, one of the greatest issues surrounding faculty development is that of the ability of faculty members to find outside sources of funding for continuing program strength and expertise. This issue redefines faculty position descriptions and hiring practices, it informs the strength and direction of the basic premise of many programs. Assuredly, the ability of faculty members to have a strong hand in funding and development issues defines whether many advertising programs in the country will survive the next few years.

Notable Opportunities and New Dimensions

Just as deficiencies exist in advertising education that need remedy, several positive developments in the field of advertising education can be capitalized upon and used to strengthen our programs. In each case below, these issues represent opportunities and new dimensions integral to advertising today. The issues suggest new and important research dimensions and a sea change in advertising practice. Importantly, each means further opportunity for our students and for the growth of the academy. Overall, it is to that scenario that advertising curricula must be directed.

Advertising Curricula & Scholarship Evolves

Interestingly, technological change and the advent of new channels of communication create a notable breeding ground for innovation in the academy. New courses studying the Internet and digital communication, new emphasis on strategy and creativity in its broadest application, new approaches to traditional course offerings: all have resulted in changes to the nature of advertising scholarship. More graduate and undergraduate studies explore the complexities of creativity, strategy, new media, integrated marketing communication, and branding relationships. These fertile areas for discourse and learning offer astounding opportunity to students and faculty alike.

Importantly, broad philosophies concerning advertising’s new genre and expectations have played an important part of the change. Along with consistent coverage in the trade press, professional and academic conferences, and in texts and journal articles; integrated marketing communication (IMC) has been seeping slowly into advertising curricula. IMC represents an opportunity to expand the importance of advertising education. Hence, the philosophy of IMC should be saluted and embraced as an integral part of advertising education programs.

Enthusiastic Growth of the Discipline

Means Cultural, Institutional Acceptance

Student interest in advertising as a major with vast career opportunity has expanded over the past decade. Some of this new enthusiasm is due to the recent cultural context that emphasizes advertising as a form of entertainment and cultural discourse, as discussed earlier. Other new initiatives are part of the economic and technological growth surrounding the Internet and increased distribution networks. The educational task of teaching during a revolutionary epoch is challenging. A cultural emphasis on environmental messaging in all forms has underscored the need for responsible, well-trained professionals in the field.

Likewise, the academy has shown growing acceptance for viewing advertising as a field for scholarly study within the communication and business fields. Part of this is the cultural trend noted above, part may be attributable to the conventional and institutional understanding that strong messaging systems are vital to business and social environments. Even universities, in their desire for growth and appropriate enrollment, understand the need for strong internal and external communication programs.

Strong Industry Support Exists in Many Quarters

Professional support of advertising in the academic sector is evident. The American Association of Advertising agencies, for example, has a strong internship program in place for minority students. The program is well funded and provides agency opportunities during summer periods for many deserving students. The Advertising Educational Foundation (AEF) offers a summer Visiting Professor Program tied to agency and client-side venues. These activities provide a level of contact with the business world and its approach to problems that is for students and for associated supporting faculty. Similarly, the American Academy of Advertising (AAA) and the American Advertising Federation (AAF) have traditionally supported student competitions, professional development and visiting lecturers drawn from the business community. Established ties with organizations such as AAF are the one of the strongest examples of academy and industry interconnectedness. Through its Academic Committee, 250-member college chapter program, and the 26-year old annual Student Competition, the AAF provides important experience for students and faculty.

Many agencies and industry entities strongly support education in the academy; large agencies such as Leo Burnett USA and DDB, for example, support multiple programs with ongoing educational funds designed to grow theory and practical opportunity. Other agencies and industry corporations have direct relationships with individual schools and professors, with millions of dollars and multiple resources invested in such partnerships.

The reality is this: The amount of industry support a program or professor receives is in direct proportion to how much time is invested in that relationship on the part of the university program and its professors. Educator cadres that invest in making valuable connections and offer mutually satisfying projects to industry will be rewarded with support in many ways.

Strong Voices for Change and Responsibility

Invigorate the Profession

As the power of advertising as a cultural and marketing force becomes ever clear, the renewed effort to integrate issues of ethics and accountability into advertising courses is not only laudable, it broadens the vision of the profession. Advertising’s Overdue Revolution (Helm 1999), a manifesto sent to advertising educators and industry leaders across the world, is a strong call for moral and ethical behavior regarding the planning and creation of advertising messages.

That theme continued during a recent educators panel discussion at the AAAA Creative Conference (Miami, November 1999) focusing on how to infuse young writers and art directors with a sense of social responsibility. Viewed by many attendees and industry leaders as a hidden agenda issue in the framework of advertising education, participants from Portfolio Center in Atlanta, Miami Ad School, The Creative Circus, Virginia Commonwealth University, and The University of Texas at Austin spoke openly about forging a sense of cultural accountability in students of advertising.

This continues a set of conversations with media and planning students, with those studying management and strategic technique, by students and professors involved in ongoing research concerning the unintended effects of advertising.

New Media Grows Opportunity for

Expertise and Research

With the advent of new media and the base of providers, evaluators and innovators comes a strong academic push for understanding such technological advances and their implications. Advertising programs have been identified as a breeding ground for talent well-versed in digital possibility, from content providers to relationship builders to inventors of programs and software. This infusion of innovation within the field leads to important shifts within the curriculum. Notably, media courses now encompass a much larger, much more innovative set of theories and directions. Strategic and creative courses must work to fulfill larger expectations in terms of relationship building, aesthetic appeal, and memorability. Traditional courses in principles and theory reorient content to address what the new digital world means to advertisers and consumers.

Ideally, the energy derived from new possibilities, new talent and skill sets, and new questions for the field yield a high quotient of invention and growth in all areas of study. Researchers understand a whole new field of inquiry has been born. Practitioners understand there is so much more to know about the new media paradigm, as witnessed by entrepreneurial companies such as Silicon Alley's Razorfish and the other ultra-innovative interactive houses. Teachers become motivated to learn new theories, new skills and teach more, to access the possibilities of Internet 2 and next generation broadband communication architecture before they become widespread cultural reality. Students learn -- and teach -- as they intuitively access these resources and materials. In an exceptionally real way, the media revolution is the galvanizing force that should propel us into reassessing all areas of the curriculum.

Philosophical Foundations

The following is a series of short essays on matters vital to understanding the broader context of what advertising is and how it works in our changing global culture. In this section, we explore the basic approaches to planning the advertising curriculum, frame the evolving definition of advertising, and set the framework of globalization and multiculturalism as it applies to the study of advertising. Finally, technology as a purveyor of change and relationships is discussed.

The Balance of Theory and Practice

One of the principal founders of advertising education in universities, Dr. C. H. Sandage (1993), often admonished graduate students with his dictum, “Advertising people should be architects and not bricklayers.” Architects are visionaries in the building process not only preparing the blueprint but also understanding all efforts needed to get the job done. Bricklayers merely follow a prescribed plan and lose sight of the holistic endeavor, the nuances of other building specialists. Clearly, Sandage suggests that the professor of advertising must understand theory and practice, orchestrate strategy and tactics in order to have a thorough understanding of the problem and how it is to be solved.

Through the years of the evolution of advertising education, some institutions have placed greater or lesser emphasis on theory and practice as the hallmark of their educational philosophy. The wisdom inherent in the phrase “moderation in all things” would suggest that a balance be struck between these two non-opposing possibilities. One without the other will not be helpful in the long run. Students must think in a “big way” in order to become leaders. But they cannot be professionals who spend all their time making long-range plans and then spend the rest of the time revising such plans. They need to know how "to do" as well as how “to think." While it may not be an easy objective to achieve, the measured balance between theory and practice in a university curriculum offers the architectural vision for building a stronger discipline and an enlightened industry.

The Call for an Innovative Research Mission

Research at our great research universities has traditionally been conceived as "basic" and/or "applied" in nature. Much advertising research falls into the latter category when viewed from the perspective of other "hard" scientists within the university community. This distinction has also had some meaning historically in the research departments of advertising agencies. For example, at one point a large Madison Avenue agency in the 1980's had one person in that department doing nothing but studying facial expressions with no particular short-range objective in mind. On the other hand, copy research is designed to determine the best of several creative executions to use in a campaign and is clearly applied in nature.

The implication in the university environment is that basic research is superior to applied research. Yet, as most professors in the "ivory tower" understand, it is the wish of those in the field and students hoping to enter the field that they have "practical" and useful knowledge as a result of the research process--wherever such research takes place.

In the future, this distinction may not seem as important as it did yesterday. This would be particularly true in a world where a closer partnership obtained between academicians and practitioners of advertising. The overriding goal is to understand how advertising, in all its manifestations, works.

In a time of rapid media and technological change, innovation in the research agenda is required. In many respects, old theories may guide empirical research but need to be updated to fit today's world. For example, diffusion of innovations theory may prove useful in research on internet www issues with some updating.

But more than anything else, tomorrow's research agenda will probably need to be inductively based since relevant theories are lacking for that evolving world. This puts a tremendous burden on empirical research which will serve as the basis for that induction process.

Research for tomorrow needs to address the following broad issues, among many other specific topics:

(1) How can the effectiveness of the advertising budget in traditional media be held accountable?

(2) What tools can be developed to assess the expenditure of monies in the new digital media?

(3) How can the effectiveness of internet creative messages be evaluated empirically?

(4) What elements are necessary for online media planning to be successful?

(5) How can advertising people work together to develop more effective advertising programs in new environments?

(6) What is the relative effectiveness of direct marketing, sales promotion and advertising in an overall promotion campaign (How can this be done?)?

(7) How can interactive and traditional advertising agencies get together to do better work in the future?

(8) What does the "digital divide" mean for advertising?

(9) How can the outcomes of traditional consumer behavior research be applied in the new digital world?

(10) What non-traditional methodologies might be useful in addressing the concerns of the new digital world?

Such research activities would go a long way toward informing an improved advertising education mission.

Toward a New Definition of Advertising

Before determining the future of a discipline, the boundaries of that field must be defined. Historically, advertising practitioners and academics alike have drawn the perimeter rather narrowly. Advertising was seen as just one arrow in a marketer's quiver, with sales promotion, direct marketing, and public relations representing the alternatives for aiming a message at consumers.

But in recent years those alternatives achieved greater status, which led some to predict the “death of advertising” (e.g., Rust and Oliver 1994). Indeed, if we define advertising education by too narrow a definition of “advertising” we misdirect students and misunderstand our own domain. In fact, some traditional definitions of advertising no longer make sense in light of developing technologies. One such definition in a popular textbook -- “Advertising is distinguished from other promotional activities in that it is paid for by an identified sponsor, nonpersonal, carried by mass media, and designed to be persuasive” (Patti and Frazer 1988) -- has been almost totally negated within the last decade.

To term advertising “paid” effectively would eliminate a company's own website from such a definition. To call it “nonpersonal” would except most Internet communications from the definition. But perhaps more important is the fact that the lines between communication tools are blurring. As advertising becomes more interpersonal in its approach -- the promise of the Internet made good -- it takes on attributes of interaction and discourse. Advertising then becomes a meta-narrative, and the classic distinctions between editorial content and advertising disappear.

As it becomes more integrated into the media environment such that it becomes difficult to distinguish promotional messages from the news or entertainment that surround them, the message takes on attributes of public relations. Soon, attempts to distinguish advertising from other forms of marketing communication will be nonsensical. Unlike those of us mired in this profession, the general public always has held a much broader conception of advertising. If we are to survive as an academic discipline, we must begin to accept what the public always has known: if it is used to promote a product or service, it is advertising. Indeed, the recent trend of academic programs to use the term Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) is an attempt to redefine those concepts and programs more broadly than the traditionally narrow definition of advertising. Advertising education already moves toward a broader concept of our discipline, whether we accept the broader lay definition of advertising or opt instead to change our program names to IMC.

On Ethics and Critical Studies:

Relevance for Professional Growth

As advertising has matured as a profession and the study of advertising has grown as an academic discipline, questions related to the ethical and social impact of advertising must inevitably follow. It is a sign of professional and educational maturity. The very idea of a “profession” assumes the development of norms and a responsibility for monitoring itself. Concomitantly, educators must go beyond teaching the basic skills and debate, research, and educate future practitioners about the ethical and social implications of the profession.

Any academic discipline related to a profession must be concerned with law and regulation because that serves as the baseline of what society considers acceptable. However, in advertising, as in many professions, when one raises the question of ethics, the focus tends to be solely on what is legal, assuming that what is legal is also ethical. Most scholars consider the law to be, at best, the moral minimum. Ethics is about making moral judgments, often in areas that are not currently regulated. Because advertising is a profession known to be cutting edge, pushing the boundaries of what is familiar and acceptable, making moral judgments is particularly germane and particularly difficult. Moreover, at a time of cultural focus on the effects of all commercial messaging, there exists that moral mandate to examine advertising representations of gender, ethnicity, age, and disability.

Incorporating ethical and social issues into advertising curricula involves both having separate courses that deal with law, ethics and social responsibility, and integrating these topics into standard courses. At least four types of issues must be considered: (1) legal and regulatory issues, (2) ethical issues at the work-a-day level of the individual, (3) organizational issues of ethics and social responsibility, both those of the agency and the client, and (4) ethical and social issues at the societal level, which are often referred to as the “unintended consequences” of advertising.

Professional training must also address issues of employment opportunity in the workplace and the challenges inherent in building a diverse advertising workforce and talent base. As students build a theoretical and practical foundation for their careers, they must be guided to finding personal solutions to very real industry challenges. There should be curricular emphasis on truth over puffery, a realization that discussions of personal privacy are relevant to e-commerce, and a strong push for socially responsible work from all areas of industry. Further, professors should emphasize the role of pro bono work as it contributes to the cultural good.

Apart from fulfilling the requirements of a profession, there are practical reasons to face difficult ethical and social issues head-on. Advertising has long been a popular target for criticism, and there is every reason to expect this to intensify. Professions that refuse to grapple with ethical and social issues themselves inevitably have lawmakers and others do it for them. This comes into sharp focus when one considers the Internet. Advertising professionals are well aware of the exciting opportunities for advertising with this new medium, but outside the Advertising community, there are huge fears about its development and expansion that are driven largely by concerns related to law, ethics, and social responsibility. Advertising as a profession, and advertising educators in particular, want to lead in the discussion of the myriad of legal, ethical, and social issues now emerging. No doubt, if advertising educators do not rise to this challenge, other interests and professions will dictate rules and norms regarding the Internet.

The Multicultural Society

In a multicultural society, people from different subcultures by definition have unique values, beliefs and styles of communication. As America becomes more demographically diverse, such differences are championed as evidence that we can be whatever or whoever we wish to be. Ethnic identity is an option we choose, not a biological mandate. Different communication and purchasing patterns among consumers from different ethnic groups, age cohorts, sexual orientations, genders, and geographic regions, increasingly place us in separate physical, aspirational, community and media spaces. The products, services, and brands we buy and the media we consume, are significant expressions of how we see ourselves, what values we espouse, and where we fit. The marketplace is a natural arena for expressing personal identity; our choices become vehicles for communicating alliances and aspirations in a multicultural society.

Because American consumers increasingly adopt multiple and situational identities, membership in a particular sub-culture does not always correlate directly with an individual’s market or communication preferences. In response, we must build relationships with consumers on a basis of shared values and community memberships. Mass media are splintering and new media facilitate two-way dialogs with employees, customers, suppliers and the general public. These vehicles and other one-to-one marketing tools, offer the promise of narrowcasting message and media to match our evolving consumer sub-cultures.

Advertising students must be prepared for the important role that culture and sub-culture play as influences on consumers all over the world. An important component of advertising curriculum should be exposure to cultural value systems and their influence on various sub-culture groups in the United States. This knowledge will be valuable too for our increased dependence on and participation in the global marketplace. Future practitioners must also be able to identify the cultural content of consumer behaviors, company decisions, and material artifacts such as advertisements and communication messages. This skill is learned via assignments and exercises that build fluency in interpreting meaning from multiple perspectives. Coursework should emphasize the ways in which organizations communicate their own values to consumers, and how to harness cultural compatibility for more stable, broad-based relationships with external publics. To assist clients in developing culturally compatible strategies, the designers of advertising curricula should well consider including public relations, philanthropy, internal communications vehicles and course in human resource policies as new tools for agency management and multi-cultural understanding.

New Perspectives in Traditional Areas of Study

This section reviews traditional areas of the advertising curriculum from new perspectives, assuming that our role as 21^st century educators is to provide innovative direction for tried-and-true principles. In realizing our obligation to inspire students and colleagues, we chose six areas for commentary: the future of media planning; the revolutionary possibilities of interactive media a stronger approach to the study of creativity and execution; the impact of account planning on the industry and our curriculum; corporate communication as a partner in the curriculum mix; and the challenge of globalization.

The Future Role of Media Planning

        Given the tumultuous changes reverberating through the advertising media environment, undergraduate education in this area is in need of examination and change. In the past, undergraduate media planning classes have been limited to providing students with a basic understanding of the different terms, such as reach, frequency and GRPs, a regurgitative knowledge of rudimentary strategies and a check list inventory of the most salient media characteristics. While this basic education is necessary, it is no longer sufficient. The number of media alternatives, new research findings concerning the importance of abstract concepts such as exposure aperture and effective frequency, as well as the increasing demands for accountability, have created the need for a new level of expertise: the media specialist.
            Recently, in a focus group setting, eleven advertising / media practitioners and academics were asked to prophesize about the future of advertising media and suggest alternatives for adequately preparing students. The discussion embarked from the recognition that these suggestions were in addition to the basic media skills, including media vocabulary and general computer literacy (word processing, spreadsheet use, on-line navigation and communication). A stable perception of the characteristics, skills and curricular imperatives emerged from the discussion.
        While several characteristics were recognized, the most roundly supported seemed to be the recognition that students must be more than merely media specialists; they must also be generalists. This means that they must understand how media work, as well as how to plan and execute media decisions that are carefully coordinated with overall marketing goals and other communication efforts. The participants also agreed that media specialists must be able to analyze consumer research, and other forms of strategic media research from a marketing perspective, while maintaining the larger cultural context. But to be truly successful, media specialists must further be able to integrate their analyses into meaningful courses of action.
        The skills necessary to help students achieve this level of sophistication were also discussed. Through lively discussion a varied skill set evolved. Creative problem solving appeared to be the most valued ability. A creative problem solver is defined as a solutions-oriented strategist who is able to turn data into ideas. The second set of skills deemed necessary and important were interpersonal abilities. Media specialists should be great listeners, negotiators and diplomats. They must also have good communication skills, and that means more than merely grammar free writing. Communication skills have written components, but they include the ability to present information in a systematic and persuasive manner, employing technology when appropriate.
        Our focus group participants determined that there is a real and growing need for media specialists. All agreed that, while experience is necessary to evolve a sophisticated media specialist, providing a sufficient foundation requires a specialized education. Several curricular imperatives were identified. Beyond the basic media course, media specialists must be exposed to a variety of opportunities to analyze media cases, present media solutions to various marketing and advertising problems and use a variety of media research data and software. They must also be presented with more than merely the client's perspective. Media specialists should be able to dissect and give sales presentations using media kits and rate card information from a variety of media. They should also be exposed to different areas of media buying, such as post-buy valuations, negotiating contracts and spot rates.
        These curricular imperatives indicate the need for an entire restructuring of current advertising media education. Additional coursework must be offered. Tremendous changes in the media environment are already creating a tension between what practitioners need from an entry-level media specialist, and what those entry level graduates are equipped to contribute.

The Role of Interactive Media

The future includes teaching additional and revolutionary new ways to think about media. The operative words are “additional” not “replacement," and “revolutionary” not “evolutionary." We will not abandon established media. But we will teach integration and enhancement with the emerging new, fundamentally different, interactive channels. That sentence reads correctly. It's channels, not channel.

The future includes exploring and rethinking every media concept, definition and construct with the words “What if …” as the first two words in every question.

The future requires media reorientation with today's technologies and true one-to-one communications firmly in hand. Consider the possibilities:

• Global Satellite Positioning redefining the whole idea of “where."

• Log files measuring behavior, not reported behavior, one person at a time.
• LCD panel displays redefining venue at a micro level.
• GSP and LCD in combination yielding “proximity based direct response ads."
• Audience profiles that are both voluntarily and collaborative.
• Intranets and extranets fundamentally redefining “captive audiences."
• “Space” that varies from 60 square pixels to streaming video on demand.
• “Client pooling” as appliance manufacturers become “micro-media” companies.
• POP media driven by user-provided profiles beamed via infrared from a PDA,
plus 100 other ideas generated at the intersection of technology and communication.

And so the realm of possibility begins. What if …

…I could trigger a 20%-off ad on the cell phone display of someone who identified himself in a sign-up profile as an avid reader as he was driving within 2 miles of my bookstore between noon and 4:00pm?

…the audience determined the “message load” they desired as well when they wanted it delivered, from minimal messaging on a Palm Pilot display to discourse messaging via streaming video on demand, limited only by the viewer's ability to see and absorb?

…I could do real time testing of ad effectiveness based solely on headline changes?

…I could buy space on a self-service gasoline pump LCD display?

…a VCR manufacturer wanted to sell “space” on the digital display of new VCRs?

…I could beam a selected set of my personal preferences from my Palm Pilot to a POP display in a retail store to get directions, items on sale for product categories I'm interested in, and “blue light specials”?

…we had to teach the notion of introducing media serendipity into a plan to avoid the destructive downward audience spiral fueled by overload, message wear-out, and boredom?

The possibilities herein only begin to mark the tremendous opportunity within this burgeoning field. With such possibility, new issues of reach and frequency grow. What if over-targeting becomes a problem? What if advertisers and new media firms are slow to address the ethical issues involved with new-found data collection methodologies and technologies? What if people discover the true economic value of their own identity and then demand fair compensation? Such questions need be addressed in the university classrooms so that this new field and the new professionals within understand their power, their responsibility, theiropportunity.

Teaching Systemic Approaches to Creativity

It is convenient to consider the world in easily labeled, predictably arranged units. In the advertising industry, managerial fiefdoms were built using this template: the typical corporate blueprint consists of places and people labeled creative, management, research, media, production, and -- recently -- planning and interactive. Advertising education followed along; traditionally, curriculum is built using this same schema and, along with coursework and assignments, we tend to build obstacles to bigger, progressive thinking.

Bigger thinking in this instance is embodied in the concept of creativity and the teaching of core creative theory and strategy in our programs. In an industry and accompanying domain dazzling the world with innovative products and possibilities, creativity –- in the advertising pedagogical sense –- is still framed as a few courses in strategy execution, writing, and art direction. Instead of this anemic traditional view of what constitutes the creative field in advertising, we propose that the core concept of creativity in the field cut across areas and expertise, that it be defined as the heart of the advertising enterprise, and that creative technique and theory be solidly integrated into all coursework at all levels.

This does not take away from the careful, brave teaching that must go on in order to grow a competitive portfolio program for writers and art directors. Those university programs embracing such a set of courses and expertise realize the hard pedagogical work involved in proving executional skill is a relevant part (but only a part) of a critical thinking, conceptually based approach to creating great advertising. Indeed, many university structures find it hard to incorporate such perspective because of three reasons: Academic structures traditionally reserve anything executional for Fine Arts and applied programs, no matter the process behind it. Also, administration deems it implausible, maybe impossible to compete with portfolio finishing schools that have grown to fill a real need for such training in the last two decades.

But the real crux of the problem is who will teach those courses, administer those competitive university portfolio programs. The answer lies in finding people ready to understand the machination of the creative process and connect it specifically to an advertising context. Sometimes, professionals from the field fill this role, though they are apt to have more of an intuitive understanding of creativity than a broad intellectual perspective. Often they are likely to possess strong tools for crafting the product, but few tools for teaching the craft. When the right mix of industry and teaching skill is found, that person is a valuable commodity.

The long-term answer lies in developing a set of creative uberprofessors who understand creative theory, produce work of merit on their own, and communicate process and strategy and technique through a strong teaching style. They work within academic frameworks –- tenure tracked, theory savvy, intellectually curious, teaching and researching –- and possess industry ties that inform their students’ work, show support for the portfolio process, increase visibility of the program. They have graduate degrees in advertising, cultural studies, fine arts, creative writing, or communication. They are creative.

Now the discussion returns to the issue of a larger definition of creative study and how aspiring (and inspiring) faculty members learn to seed creativity into every course. In a creative-based advertising program, all faculty teach in creative terms. Students are taught early on to think innovatively. They graduate to work at corporations steeped in a new type of creative energy,

the phenomenon running true through each department, each cubicle, each client’s situation. They are creative.

A university setting can breed this type of creative faculty member, this brand of student if all the right protocols are in place. Mainly there need be formal study of the theory and concept of creativity, of innovative work created personally, professionally, and by groups. The conversation might shift at any given point to matters of advertising, but only after creativity as a system is firmly entrenched as the program of study. Dru (1996) explains the need for “disruption” (i.e. disrupting the status quo, rejecting the conventional, breaking with tradition) when creating ideas in advertising; the theory is reasonable in that energized advertising work is born of a systematic approach to breaking through boundaries. Architects of advertising education must look for this same sense of disruption –- new breakthrough, new approaches, new systems – and build a curriculum framed by creativity. Writers and art directors build portfolios in creative classes, but account planners, media planners, and account managers build strategy and the sense of investment in the creative product. The best advertising curricula will invest all students in that creative process.

Account Planning As Essential Paradigm

We are at the beginning of humankind’s invention of a new level of collective interaction and the rules of engagement -- our basic relationships and connections to the world around us –- often are being defined in mediated terms. Account planners will be part of the teams exploring these issues in both marketing and sociocultural contexts.

The pedagogical challenges of teaching account planning in colleges and universities will continue to be complex in the decade ahead. Driving changes in the curriculum will be three major influences. The first will focus on increased understanding of Afro-, Hispanic- and Asian-American markets. General market agencies as well as ethnic-oriented shops will work to increase their understanding of these segments and the impact of a truly diverse and viable consumer base.

Secondly, we anticipate seeing renewed emphases on ethnological and fieldwork studies directed to producing consumer insight. These efforts will increase in importance with the customization and personalization of web delivered information and resources. The precise targeting that the Internet provides will, in turn, call for more precision in terms of consumer relevance and understanding. Third, account planning will play an important role in the analysis and development of digital brands and web-based products and services.

While the primary role of the account planner will continue to focus on the making of great advertising or, as noted account planner and author Jon Steel (1998) has said “getting the ads right”, there will be more emphasis on the strategic issues that face the brand in the entire marketplace. Distribution, pricing, channel comparison, and even manufacturing will all share the premise and domain of account planning. It is very likely that this overall strategic involvement will be accompanied by a change in the name of the account planning function (particularly since no one ever really liked the name "account planning" to begin with -- not even the Brits).

In industry, part of this development will see the account planner coming forward with more than a top-line of the focus group or a draft of the creative brief. The planners of the 21^st century will be involved in the preparation and writing of business plans and will be expected to understand category relationships and potential partnerships. Equally important, account planner