Advertising Theories and Communication Design

The course aims to delve into the subject of advertising from a dual perspective: advertising as an economic phenomenon and as a socio-cultural phenomenon.

Module I: advertising as an economic phenomenon
Advertising campaigns, often judged solely based on their creative/aesthetic aspect or what the public can see, actually consist of many other non-visible stages within this particular industry. Therefore, this module will illustrate the various stages involved in defining and implementing advertising strategies that precede and follow the campaigns. These stages include pre- and post-launch market research, analysis of demographic and psychographic variables of the audience, semantic analysis, brand perception analysis, etc. The program will also pay special attention to the new opportunities offered by digital technology and how they have profoundly changed the language and distribution methods of advertising, giving rise to new concepts such as content, sharing, predictiveness, and granularity. The objective is to provide students with a deeper perspective to frame the entire advertising process, which goes well beyond the purely creative aspect.

Module II: advertising as a socio-cultural phenomenon
This part of the course will illustrate advertising as a phenomenon capable of influencing public discourse while also being influenced by it. Examples from the international context will be presented to emphasize the constant tension within advertising language between standardization and differentiation of messages depending on the cultural context of reference. The lessons will be conducted by referring, when useful, to concepts and insights offered by disciplines such as sociology, philosophy, history, and anthropology. This module will also explore the progressive intermingling of advertising with other languages, particularly with journalism and political communication, highlighting the risks of this gradual hybridization. The goal is to provide students with a broader perspective in which advertising (and the history of advertising) is placed within a context rich in meanings and cultural references.

By the end of the course, the student will have gained a comprehensive understanding of advertising both as an economic phenomenon and as a cultural phenomenon. The student will possess a set of conceptual tools suitable for recognizing and interpreting advertising language and its forms, which, thanks to new technologies, have become increasingly diverse, unpredictable, and refined. The ultimate objective is to enable the student to read advertising messages critically based on objective criteria shared by the community of professionals working in the advertising industry.