Strategic Communication and Media: Advertising

Offered by: Strategic Communication and Media

Advertising is a broad field that includes account management, brand strategy and management, copywriting, and media planning. Thus, our concentration takes a business and strategic communication approach that addresses targeted messaging across multiple platforms. Students will learn to develop strategies to persuade and appeal to an organization or institution's consumers or constituents. Electives will allow the student to be introduced to advertising production or to develop complementary interest areas. This concentration prepares students for jobs at advertising and public relations agencies, companies, or news outlets like newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations. The program requires 54 credits, leaving room for students to pursue minors or second majors in complementary academic areas. Slippery Rock University offers the only stand-alone advertising concentration among the PASSHE schools.

Why Choose Advertising?

Slippery Rock University's Department of Strategic Communication and Media offers six concentration areas: Advertising, Converged Journalism, Digital Media Production, Integrated Marketing Communication, Public Relations, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication. Advertising is a strategic communication discipline that attempts to shape the public’s perception of an organization’s products, services, brands, or ideas. Advertising is the most visible and easily identifiable part of the marketing communication process. It focuses on promoting products, services, brands, companies, people, and ideas through paid media space in newspapers, magazines, broadcast, outdoor, direct marketing, and digital platforms. Courses developed for the advertising concentration are shared across IMC and public relations curricula, thus strengthening both programs.

What Will You Learn?

This major will largely focus on teaching students the communicative fundamentals of advertising design, development and production. As such, students will learn to develop compelling concepts, visual messages and creative content to persuade and appeal to an organization or institution's consumers or constituents. This major will prepare students for jobs at advertising agencies, for and non-profit organizations, educational institutions, government agencies, political figures and organizations, or with news outlets like newspapers, magazines, and radio and television stations. These students may work as graphic designers, editors, account executives or production specialists.

Careers In Advertising

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, "overall employment of advertising, promotions, and marketing managers is projected to grow six percent from 2019 to 2029, faster than the average for all occupations.” Advertising, promotions, and marketing campaigns will continue to be essential for organizations to maintain and expand their market share. “The median annual wage for advertising and promotions managers was $125,510 in May 2019. The median annual wage for marketing managers was $136,850 in May 2019.”