阿拉巴馬大學

Students of advertising will develop and hone critical and creative thinking skills. Students will develop an understanding of the intended audience and use that understanding to create relevant messages, using powerful verbal and visual imagery capable of communicating the intended message(s) in order to capitalize on organizational opportunities and solve communication problems. The skills necessary for creating persuasive messages and developing the means to expose those messages to the intended audience will be learned in this program. These skills include the ability to conduct research to measure program needs, develop program quantifiable objectives and focused strategies, implement state-of-the-art tactics and develop the tools to measure a program’s return on investment.

Advertising is the creative expression of strategic persuasive communication. As a marketing function, advertising focuses on the promotion of products, services, companies, organizations and ideas through paid media space or time. Examples of advertising media include magazines, newspapers, television, radio, online, outdoor/transit and alternative.

Students seeking to major in advertising may pursue one of the following options:

• General advertising major (32 hours): prepares students for account management and media buying
• Creative specialization: prepares students for careers in art direction (37-39 hours) or copywriting (35-39 hours); students are competitively selected for this specialization based on an application process initiated after the first phase of coursework in the major
• Consumer specialization (32 hours): prepares students for careers in consumer research/insight development; students are competitively selected for this specialization based on an application process initiated after the first phase of coursework in the major

Career Opportunities:

Graduates find employment at advertising or public relations agencies, advertising, public relations, or promotional departments of businesses, industries and government agencies and with traditional and nontraditional media outlets.