Not everything. I’d say my, like, seventeen years out of college have also been thoroughly educational. But I consider myself lucky to have stumbled across advertising as a college major. Creative and/or persuasive writing have been pretty much the only thing I’ve been consistently interested in since childhood (and yes, I’ve literally been writing ads since childhood, and yes, I was considered by many to be an odd child), so discovering a way to actually make a living off of them was pretty amazing. (My older brother, who also graduated from UGA’s journalism school but with a degree in for-real journalism, called me a sellout for picking “the one journalism major that actually makes money,” but I’m pretty sure he was joking.)
(Besides, the PR major was also in the J-school, and they were definitely pulling in more after graduation than any of the rest of us.)
But I digress. (Frequently.)
The, arguably larger, reason I feel lucky for being able to get a formal advertising education is that I got to learn about advertising. Formally. I got to sit down with textbooks (children, those are like ebooks printed out on paper that cost hundreds of dollars and weigh a ton) and classes taught by real industry professionals, learning a lot of things I might not have otherwise picked up organically from experience. Much of what I learned there I use regularly now and have even been able to convey to others who at least claim to appreciate the information.
None of this is to say that a formal ad training is completely necessary to succeed in the industry — I’ve known many an English major, for example, who’ve done just that. And none of this is to say that the industry hasn’t changed a whole lot over the course of nearly two decades — there’s still been quite a bit of learning on the job. But most of the fundamentals remain, and here are five of them I’m particularly glad to have on board.
1. Message strategy
This was my absolute favorite class, because it was the one that built a bridge from the fun writing I’d been doing all my life to real, persuasive copy that could live in the real world. This was where I learned about the concept of brands, learned to read a creative brief, learned to write copy that would be effective and not just what I wanted to write, learned how to criticize creative work, and even learned to pitch ideas. Those are all things I’ve used throughout my career and, theoretically, I probably would have picked them up over time. But starting out my advertising career with a class in How to Advertising gave me knowledge and confidence to enter the industry and have an opportunity to develop those skills.
(I don’t know if I should give a shout out to Dr. Strausbaugh for this? I hope she wouldn’t be ashamed to have her name in any way connected to my career. But thanks, anyway, or possibly sorry.)
But I didn’t go to ad school: I totally get it. If you’re just getting started in the industry, or even if you’re experienced and just want to shore up some of the basics, there are a few online courses that can help you out from Skillshare and such, particularly Copywriting 101 and Advertising Foundations.
2. Graphic communications
There’s a lot about this class that has become completely obsolescent, on account of we learned QuarkXPress and if you’ve never even heard of it, there’s a reason. (I still have my college portfolio, mostly in Quark and stored on a zip disk, meaning I have media I can’t use storing files I couldn’t access anyway, meaning that disk serves sentimental purposes only.) But we also learned about things like visual hierarchy, color theory, structure, and layout. As a copywriter, I don’t put those into use a lot myself — I don’t pretend to be a designer of any sort, and I specifically refrain from stepping on my art directors’ toes. But I’m able to write copy with a mind to what the art director is going to have to do with it, and on the occasion that said AD asks me to make copy changes to fit the layout, I’m able to understand why they’re asking. And usually, I’m happy to oblige.
Usually. Suck it up, sometimes — I wrote it that way for a reason.
(My first personal victory in this class, incidentally, was removing a goat from a mountain and placing it on another mountain for a Volkswagen spec ad. Such technology was a wonder to me.)
I said I didn’t go to ad school: Yeah, I heard you. Format has a handy list of fourteen graphic design courses, many of which are free. Do some learning. Have a ball.
3. Media planning
This is not something I’ve ever even considered doing, and taking a class about it was, to me, dead boring. But it was a requirement, and I’m glad it was. Knowing specifically how audiences were going to be consuming my messaging has influenced the way I’ve crafted said messaging. This is one of the subjects that’s changed the most over time, because HAHAHA radio and hello to digital. (Kidding. Radio is, believe it or not, still a thing.) But the basics still apply, and I’m glad to have them.
Clearly you aren’t listening: Clearly you aren’t listening. I’m helping you out here. Honestly, you can probably give this subject a miss and not lose any sleep over it, but if you do want to learn about media planning, the University of Pennsylvania has an online Media Planning class via Coursera.
4. Consumer research/statistics
I’m grouping these together because, to the extent that I’ve used them, it’s always been in tandem. And it’s usually been related to something other than advertising. It’s good to be able to look at a survey that appears straightforward and be able to tease out the questions that add important nuance — how were the questions phrased? How were respondents contacted? How many points were on the Likert scale? How is the data being presented now, and gosh, isn’t that just a leeetle bit slanted? It’s nice to go out in the world that much more not-put-one-over-on-me-able.
Statistics, in this context, was just the hard-science counterpart to the soft science of consumer sentiment, and it was basically just a semester of fun math puzzles. Which I aced. THAT’S RIGHT, BITCHES, I ACED STATS. BEHOLD MY MATHEMATICAL PROWESS.
Fine. I give up: You know what? Maybe I’m going to give up, because I’m making an actual effort to help. This is another one you don’t have to put time into unless you’re just curious, but you can learn about Market Research and Consumer Behavior on Coursera. And to learn about statistics — which you definitely should do — I highly recommend Statistics by Jim.
5. Ethics
Of all the advertising classes I took, Advertising and Society might have been one of the most meaningful, and one of the ones that most benefited from an academic format.The class didn’t just look at the basics of ethics — it looked at history and pop culture and such to show how those ethical points show up in real life and can affect real people. It’s one thing to learn about truth in advertising — it’s another thing to look at an ad that might otherwise seem on the up-and-up and think, Ooh, that’s actually kind of slimy. And it’s another thing to see how what we do can have a real impact, positive or negative, on society over time. My boyfriend jokes that I’m a “professional liar” (and y’all, I’m suddenly starting to bristle at the number of people who ha-ha-jokingly mess with me about my job), but in reality, not being a liar has been a foundational precept for me from the beginning, and this class is the biggest reason why.
Oh, crap, sorry. I was thinking about something else. What can I do for ethics?: I get it. I’ve been there. Conveniently, Duke University has its Advertising and Society class online on Coursera. Of any of the subjects listed here, this is the one I’d most recommend taking time to study in earnest.
The learning never ends.
Again, is an advertising degree a total necessity for success in the industry? Absolutely not. Some of the most talented, inspiring creatives I’ve worked with developed their craft the hard way, and I’ve learned as much from them as I did from my college classes. My biggest recommendation is to look at the advertising professionals you admire and really have a think about why you admire them, and what you admire so much.
Is it their deftness at coming up with Big Ideas? Is it their ability to add the little details that really make an ad pop? Is it their insight into their audience’s collective mind? Hell, is it their ability to sell weird-but-promising concepts to the client? If you admire that person from afar, you can do some googling to dig up advice on how to improve your skills in those areas. But if it’s someone you work with, just ask them, straight up. Either they’ll be super flattered and happy to share their knowledge, or they’ll be a dick about it and you’ll suddenly find yourself admiring them less.
I mean, if you want to comment or email me, all, “Hey, I think you’re great and want to learn from you, please share your wisdom,” I’ll be, like, “Yeah, absolutely. Happy to. Ask away.” And you’ll be, like, “Wow, you’re the best. I so value your knowledge and experience.” And I’ll be all, “Please, stop, I’m blushing.” (But you don’t have to stop if you don’t want to.) Because education!