All About My College Major: Advertising

(I currently attend Temple University as a Sophomore with a major in Advertising.)

No matter how many times I mention it in my videos and to my friends, I’m constantly getting asked what my major is in college (and that’s okay – I forget others’ all the time too lol).

Surprise: it’s Advertising.

In this post, I answer the most frequently asked questions regarding my major to serve both those that want to learn my reason for studying it and those who are looking to study it themselves. I get into quite a bit of detail to hopefully answer any possible question, so grab a snack and enjoy.

If you ever see anyone ask what my major is on any of my social media, just direct them to this post 🙂 I’m counting on all of you!

Let’s dig in.

What is Advertising?

Whenever I mention that my major is advertising, most people respond with, “so like marketing…right?”

Yes, and no.

Advertising is a strategy used in marketing, but requires a specific set of skills that differs slightly from marketing. The main difference is that marketing involves research and analysis of a target audience in order to create the most effective message for them.

Advertising is the literal process of creating that message, using creative strategies such as text, graphics, video, and more.

Just think about the ads you see each time you log onto social media. What do they say? What images do they portray? Do they grab your attention? Do they relate to your interests? That’s what I have to think about.

Why Did I Choose Advertising?

I originally wanted to go to school for graphic design or film, but there were a few factors that held me back. First, both of those majors are a part of Temple’s art school (Tyler School of Art) and I didn’t particularly want an art degree.

Next, careers in those fields would require me to take directions and create content for other people. Even though they’re creative, I wouldn’t be that personally involved with my own visions and designs.

Finally, the graphic design major required a portfolio of work at the time of application, and I definitely did not have one of those.

After scrolling through the list of endless majors, I finally came across advertising. I was interested in the communications side of it – something the other two majors lacked. I already had a basic understand of advertising from taking business classes in high school and running a YouTube channel on my own; it was the perfect mix of creativity, communications, and business. I can envision opportunities of either working for a company or for myself, which is just what I wanted.

Why didn’t I just choose marketing? Simply, I wanted to be directly involved in curating the messages and visions behind the ads. I don’t care much for market research – just tell me who I’m making the ad for and let me work my magic.

What Do You Do In School?

As of right now, we’ve been learning the basics about emerging digital media as well as traditional forms of advertising. We’re taught about the basic rules and guidelines of advertising, what makes an ad effective, what ethical practices you have to follow, etc. For the intro-level courses, we’ve learned a lot about the history of advertising and how it has progressed to what it is now.

I’ve had quite a few projects where I’ve had to brainstorm ideas for campaigns and turn them into polished advertisements, depending on the given target audience and message. I also took a digital media class that taught me the Adobe Creative programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, AfterEffects, etc. These are the programs mainly used by creatives at ad agencies, so it’s important to at least know the basics of them.

Another major part of advertising is learning GoogleAdwords (now Google Ads) to create ad campaigns and run ads across the internet. I personally find it really interesting to find the perfect balance of budget and campaign strategies to get the most effective ads for your company. I’ll spare you any more details because I can bet those last few sentences were gibberish to some of you.

Is It Hard?

From a workload standpoint, not particularly. But, it’s totally dependent of the person and their work ethic. Many of my classes are discussion/project-based because advertising is always changing. Besides for the history, there’s not much you can learn from a textbook. We discuss many current events in the public relations (PR) world, such as celebrities, political campaigns, and social media, and how they’re related to advertising.

Overall, I would say the work challenges more of your creativity and communication skills than the type of skills used in something like math or science classes. You don’t have to memorize a bunch of information, spend hours reading textbooks, or be tested on the sheer knowledge of a subject. It’s more about how you can apply your personal skills to effectively complete the project and understand the process of advertising as a whole.

What Do You Do After College?

There’s a few different directions you can go for in advertising. Copywriting focuses more on the writing portion of the ads (duh). What will they say? What type of language will be used? How do you want the audience to feel? Copywriters work directly with the Art Directors, or those who work on the visual aspects of the ads. These are called the creatives of an ad agency.

There’s also Account Managers, which serve as the leaders that connect the different parts of an ad agency. They deal with client relationships, manage and oversee budgets, creative development, media planning, the process of strategic planning, timelines and more. (This is what I currently want to do.)

Finally there’s the Media Planners, who study the advertising research, get to know consumer patterns, and purchase media on behalf of the client.

---

Hopefully now you have a comprehensive understanding of my major, what I do, and why I chose it. Whether or not you’re interested in studying advertising yourself, I hope you enjoyed this post. Let me know in the comments what you’re studying/want to study. Lots of love,