Three Semesters: (Fall, Spring, Fall). The Advertising program consists of a minimum of 12 courses/48 credits. Students must also pass a formal faculty review of their Presentation of Final Work or complete a professional project.
Students can find their degree requirements at the Boston University Academics Website.
Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the program, students should be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding and application of effective advertising by using strategy, writing, presentation, design, and digital techniques to achieve objectives developed for client-based projects.
- Demonstrate the practice of developing innovative solutions to client problems and opportunities by creating an advertising plan that includes strategy, account management, consumer insight, media, and brand building.
- Demonstrate knowledge and competencies for achieving professional-quality strategic solutions and idea generation using skills in areas such as art direction, copywriting, and video development.
- Demonstrate knowledge and competencies in advertising planning and consumer insight by designing and conducting research to develop creative briefs and advertising planning de-briefs.
- Demonstrate professional skills by working on account teams in classes such as AdLab.
- Recognize the ethical and social responsibility issues related to advertising.
Curriculum
Master of Science in Advertising
Requirements: The MS in Advertising program consists of a minimum of 12 courses/48 credits. Students must also pass a formal faculty review of their online Presentation of Final Work.
Requirements (4 total courses; 16 credits):
Overview of the nature, function, practice, and social, economic, and behavioral aspects of advertising. Student teams develop advertising plans, create campaigns, and explore problems of account management, creativity, production, and ethics. 1st sem.
Explores how to arrive at consumer insights that lead to better advertising and promotion. The course focuses on the set of skills necessary to create breakthrough advertising, including qualitative research, observation, interviewing skills, mapping, and presentation tools. Students learn to write effective, creative briefs.
Focus is on the strategic creative process in advertising including concept development, copywriting, visualization, and design. Assignments require conceiving solutions to client marketing challenges across a range of media. Teaches foundations for development of effective advertising: problem definition, strategic development, and conceptual idea generation through tangible executions. 1st sem.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708) - Administration of complete advertising program. Case study method used to explore the marketing mix, budgeting, media strategy, planning, coordinating advertising with promotion, working with client or agency, and the social responsibility of advertisers.
Concentration Courses (students must take at least 4 courses; 16 credits):
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMCM217, CM417, CM501) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM501, CM717, CM708) - The assignments you'll work on in Art Direction this semester are structured to provide you with the firsthand experience of managing and developing brands for a range of clients. You'll assume responsibility for the strategic insight and discovery necessary to shape the brand's image development and then go on to determine and implement the advertising's consistent, overall design aesthetic. Successful work from these assignments, showcased in your portfolio, will demonstrate your ability to manage the brand development process for 21st century clients.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMCM217 & COMCM417) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708 & COMCM717) - Students develop concepts, create scripts and storyboards, and study execution-based challenges of video production. Students will create extendable advertising concepts for video, designed to succeed in a changing media landscape on multiple platforms.4 cr. Either sem. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Creativity/Innovation, Teamwork/Collaboration.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMCM215 OR COMCM217) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM701 OR COMCM708) - Students study how interactive marketing strategy integrates communication objectives with consumer insight and digital execution. How social, digital and experiential media are used to achieve branding, engagement and behavioral goals for organizations in a wide range of business categories. The impact of interactive marketing strategy on the advertising and public relations sectors.4 credits.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMCM217 & COMCM417) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708 & COMCM717) - Today's rapidly changing digital and media landscape calls for strategic and creative solutions that take into consideration emerging consumer behaviors and the new technologies that enable them. In this course, students create content and campaigns that consider the many different ways in which brands engage with their communities - paid and earned media, mobile apps, and branded utility. 4 credits.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: (COMCM217 & COMCM417) - Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM717 & COMCM708) - This course builds on the concept development and copywriting foundations learned in prerequisite courses. Assignments will require the creation of copy for a range of audience segments and media channels. Students will learn to shape copy for video, digital, print, and social media. 4 cr. 1st semester
Analyzes the impact of advertising on individuals and society and evaluates the ethical, moral, and legal questions relating to the advertising industry. The history of advertising and the rise of consumerism will be studied to create a paradigm for understanding the social effects of advertising. Students will study the issues of advertising in cyberspace and question of privacy and protection from intrusive communication messages. 1st sem.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708) - Examines media planning, buying and sales as performed by advertising agencies, clients and the media. Research sources providing data on media audiences and product usage are evaluated. Examines contemporary trends in communication media and their effects on advertisers.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: COM CM712 - Graduate Prerequisites: COM CM712 - This course offers advanced exploration in the art and science of advertising strategy highlighting the talent and knowledge required for success in this rapidly changing segment of the industry. We will extend the material learned in CM 712 through a deep dive into best practices and evolving techniques used by top advertising agencies, consultancies and the big three platforms, Alphabet, Amazon and Apple to gather and apply information about consumers and brands for use by creative teams and a variety of departments in the advertising and marketing industry.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708) - Explores the impact of current advertising/marketing issues through the lens of strategic branding and brand building best practices from business, economic, political, social, legal, and ethical perspectives. Modified case method looking at real world solutions, with lectures from experts on selected issues.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708) - Provide graduate students with real life, hands on experience replicating the process and procedures typical in the advertising industry. Direct contact with clients will give account and creative groups a first-hand understanding of the realities of the advertising business. Account teams will develop advertising strategy and create ads for clients. 2 cr.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708 & COMCM717) - Course is for graduate students who intend to work in the creative area of the advertising industry. Focus is on the principles needed to understand, conceptualize, and create an entry-level portfolio of work (print, video, digital, mobile, experiential). A workshop-like environment, mirroring an advertising agency, is augmented with lectures and case studies.
Graduate Prerequisites: (COMCM708 & COMCM717 & COMCM753) - A continuation of Portfolio Development I, this course continues the iterative process required to construct a competitive advertising portfolio. Students work to refine concepts, revise and strengthen the impact of the art direction and copywriting, and determine how the work should ultimately be displayed.
Graduate Prerequisites: one semesters of graduate study. - Students are placed in public relations, advertising, or communication departments of business, educational, philanthropic, or governmental institutions. Fifteen hours per week of supervised work. Students with a comprehensive report evaluating internship experience at end of semester. 2 or 4 cr.
Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor - Course credits slated for students writing a thesis.
ELECTIVES:
Students must take an additional 16 credits from the list below, the Concentration Course list above, or other 500-level or higher courses at BU.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. - Provides knowledge and practice for effective graphic design for all media. Develops a foundation in design principles and creative software skills including Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Students create projects demonstrating how design strategies are used to engage audiences, and enhance comprehension of all forms of mass communication from traditional print to digital media. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. - Critical evaluation of political campaign strategies and tactics within the sociopolitical environment. The roles of campaign managers, media consultants, pollsters, press secretaries, and field operatives are studied. Analysis of the impact of press coverage, political advertising, and candidate debates on the electorate. 4 cr. Either sem.
Undergraduate Prerequisites: Sophomore standing. - Health Campaigns involves the principles and practices of designing media campaigns to promote health behavior change, whether related to smoking and alcohol consumption, illicit drug use, physical activity and diet, condom use, public safety, and environmental issues. It centers on how health organizations and initiatives can achieve their goals for population-based health behavior change by strategically creating, distributing, and evaluating media campaigns and media messages. At the nexus of communication and public health, this course uses theory and persuasive elements as a basis for designing and implementing health media campaigns and media messages via different media, including traditional media, new media, and social media. With this foundation, students are tasked to evaluate extant health media campaigns and campaign messages and design their own original health media campaigns and campaign messages.
Serves to provide an in-depth understanding and proficiency in communication writing and transmedia storytelling skills across a wide variety of off and online formats, including news releases, social media, features (off and online), Q & A interviews, websites, broadcast PSA's, slide shows, videos. Stresses plagiarism prevention, collaborative workshops, reading aloud, media strategies, editing, and interview techniques. Extensive writing and rewriting. Develops comprehensive writing skills for media professionals. Both semesters. Prerequisite CM 703, unless waived via writing placement test or consent of the instructor.
CM722 Communication Research Methods is an introduction to the social scientific method of inquiry and the fundamental concepts and processes of social scientific methods that are used in media science, advertising, and public relations. Assorted research methods are covered, including both quantitative and qualitative. Also included are literature review, research design, research execution, quantitative and qualitative data analysis, and reporting of findings.