COMM2523 - 01 - Advertising & Culture

(VCI) Visual & Creative Inquiry

Advertising is a ubiquitous cultural force with effects that go far beyond the selling of products. To help students better understand how a variety of messages are represented across print, televisual and digital media, this course will introduce the concept of semiotics and how it aids in the "reading" of the connotative meanings of the images, sounds, and copy used in ad campaigns. Students will refine their skills of analysis by considering how ideology is coded and decoded by the producers and consumers of contemporary advertising.