Tuesday, December 2, 2008

VCU advertising Curriculum

Advertising agencies are no longer keeping different departments in the silos of yore. The new business plan has copywriters working next to account planners who are in contact with the creative director in teams. Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond Virginia has one of the top advertising graduate programs in the country, the VCU Brand Center. The undergraduate program’s curriculum was recently redone and the changes do not reflect the movement toward integration that is being seen within the industry.

There are two different tracks in the advertising major: strategic and creative. Under the old program strategists were required to take copywriting and media graphics. Alternately, creatives had to take a portfolio class that integrated strategy. The new curriculum has put an end to that and now the different tracks are segregated to their different specializations. It is beneficial to see all the facets that make up advertising to become a well rounded professional. All strategists must be creative and all creatives need to have some sense of strategy in order for the advertising they create to be innovative and on message.

In order to better prepare the advertising students in the different tracks for working in the advertising world they should be integrated. A copywriting class could be paired up with a class of account planners. The creatives would be able to base their advertising off the briefs the strategists wrote. That way both tracks will have a better understanding of what the other half does.

If the advertising world is moving toward integrating the various departments to create more cohesive teams and ads why is VCU doing the opposite?

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