PLM2001 Media for Advertising and Marketing Summative assessment: campaign analysis (50%) Please note you may

make use of (and for some titles and for the critical analysis it is essential that you do make use of) illustrations, clippings, and other visual material. This should be clearly labelled, referenced and referred to in the body of your written work. 1. a critical analysis of a contemporary advertising campaign (2,500 words) For this assessment you are asked to select a contemporary advertising campaign that you can monitor and critically analyse and evaluate. You must make explicit use of core course readings as well as undertaking extensive primary and secondary research into the campaign. When drawing on web-based information about the campaign make sure you distinguish between an industry account of a campaign (many of which will draw on professional discourses and are often themselves forms of PR for a campaign, its producers and clients) and your own critical/analytical observations. Make sure that you discuss your choice of campaign with your tutor and agree its suitability. I would encourage you to consider the following points when researching and writing up your campaign analysis (please note, both this and subsequent bullet points are not intended to be used as a checklist. It is up to you to consider these points and work out what structure and methodological approach works for you): Introducing the campaign the brief: what was the original brief given to the ad agency? The brief provides you with a very succinct introduction to... The context of the campaign: cultural, social, economic (including the wider economic situation as well as the specific market the campaign addresses). Market research: can you find any information on what industry research went in to developing the campaign? Media mix: what is the rationale behind the media placement strategy? Advert analysis: how do the adverts work? what is their language? What is the relation between visual and verbal elements of material produced for the campaign: linguistic devices, visual devices, the role of design? Integration: was the campaign run in only one medium or in multiple media? If it ran in several media, how successfully did it make use of the interconnection? What is the communication philosophy behind the use of interactive or social media? Effectiveness: by what measure(s) can the campaign be deemed effective or not? You need to pay attention to what the stated campaign goals were from the brief, but also to think critically about their own research and evaluation methods. Was the campaign designed to revitalise a brand, extend a brand, or maintain market share as opposed to simply increasing sales? Relationship to other forms of promotion: where does the advertising campaign fit within a wider marketing mix for the brand / product / service being advertised? Does the campaigns design, development and delivery relate to or illustrate changing advertising industry processes and practices? Regulation. Extremely important: what are the ethical and perhaps even political issues raised by the campaign? Is the campaign controversial for either of these reasons? If so, why?

2. An essay 2,500 words (50%) For advice on essay writing and referencing please consult the guide in the module handbook. If you have or expect to have difficulty with any aspect of researching and writing this assessment academic writing support is available from the Learner Development Unit. Contact Dr. Lois Smith or Mrs. Faiza Umar for an appointment or workshop details, L.Smith@mdx.ac or F.Umar@mdx.ac Choose one from the following three essay titles: A) Advertising and creativity I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I dont want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. (David Ogilvy, 1983) To what extent do you think this statement from one of the original Mad Men holds true for the way agencies view their advertising today? Discuss with reference to core and independent reading and research and to specific historical and contemporary examples. Some points to consider: The different persuasive and promotional functions of advertising: changing behaviour, getting people to buy into ideas, structures of meaning, brands and so on as well as simply persuading people to buy something; Different perspectives voiced by other leading figures in advertising (John Hegarty of BBH, for instance); The extent to which the evolution of branding, and the concomitant evolution of ad agencies as guardians of the brand, demands a new understanding of the role of creativity in advertising; Changing patterns of consumer behaviour; The impact of digital technologies especially the internet and mobiles on media consumption; Advertising saturation the challenge of cutting through the clutter of the congested media landscape; The forces acting on or within working culture within the industry the extent to which creativity is a gendered construct, for example

B) Advertising and trust Our industry has started to lose its reputation. We have now been blamed for spreading smoking, for obesity, for anorexia ... and generally overpriced goods. Trust is bust. People dont believe in advertising, and they dont believe in the creative part of advertising. (Sir Tim Bell of Chime followed by Suzie Williams of BT, speaking for the Advertising Associations Front Foot campaign, 2010) Why is trust so important to the advertising industry? Discuss with reference to core and independent reading and research and to specific historical and contemporary examples. Some points to consider: This should be an analytical not a descriptive account. Debates for and against the role of persuasion in public life; Ethics and regulation of the industry; Factors impacting on trust in the digital age the impact of social networking, instant/rolling news; the emergence of a public self-defined as consumer; The role of trust in brands and brand building; Historic examples of campaigns that have been exposed for making false claims the consequent damage in PR terms (eg. the phenomenon of greenwashing BP, Shell, Esso) The Front Foot campaign as industry PR; The historic currency of trust in the advertising and public relations industries has trust been commodified?

C) The advertising/media power balance What best accounts for the relationship between advertising and the media: Advertising is a parasite living on the backs of the media and feeding greedily on its hosts; or, it is a symbiotic relationshipof mutual benefit? Discuss with reference to core and independent reading and research and to specific historical and contemporary examples. Some points to consider: This should be an analytical not a descriptive account. You will need to contextualise your argument in relation to historical shifts in the relations between advertising and the media; You will need to discuss the relations between advertising and the media in different cultural, economic or geographical contexts; Advertisings presence in different forms of media and its relation to other forms of promotion such as product placement and PR; Changes in media consumption, spread of narrowcast media, media fragmentation; Political, economic, social and technological influences and developments such as both internal and external forms of regulation impacting on the relation between advertising and the media; Local and global cultural influences; The role of advertising revenue in funding areas of the media or driving change in media, such as the migration of journalism online; The political economy of media ownership; Impact of advertising on editorial and/ or programming content, such as the loss of advertising accounts as an influence on what to cover or what programmes to maintain; The role of the advertorial; The power of what Wernick calls the promotional intertext.