Principles of
Advertising
sells itself
By KEN MAYS
Of the Emerald
Call it the mind changer.
Many a journalism student, in the midst of
his or her news-editorial sequence, will take
Principles of Advertising, J341, and change
their major to advertising.
Typically, 90 per cent of the students
enrQlled in it at the beginning of a term will
claim they hate advertising. At the course's
conclusion, most of them will admit it is only
certain advertisements they dislike, that the
industry as a whole is valuable.
And, unfortunately, some students will take
it looking for a "mickey” and end up drop
ping. Because advertising is, although ex
citing, complex to say the least.
Three things make the course recom
mendable.
The first is the instructor. Ted Schulte
brings his 20 years of experience as a
copywriter in the nation's biggest ad agency
to the course, mixes in some interesting film
clips and slide presentations, and adds his
own sincerity to come up with a well-balanced
class The assignments are imaginative, the
lectures interesting, and the tests thorough.
And its encouraging to know you're being
taught by a guy who little more than a year
ago was an employee of J. Walter Thompson
in Chicago.
Second is the text. Written by the J-school's
own Willis Winter and two co-authors, it
makes for interesting reading. Thick but well
organized, its strong point is the straight
forward style in which it was written. The
bulk comes from the complexity of the sub
ject, not the wordiness of the authors.
Finally, there is the exitement inherent in
the subject itself. Advertising, the business of
selling products and ideas, through mass
communications, has been called by Marshall
McLuhan "the greatest artistic force of the
20th Century." Indeed, the creativity
demanded by advertising is what attracts
students to the field. And while many other
universities can offer only one or two basic
courses in advertising, the University's
Journalism School has one of the better ad
vertising sequences in the country. So if the
principles course only whets your appetite,
you have somewhere to go.
But even if advertising doesn't figure in
your career considerations, the course can be
of tremendous value for you as a future
business person or consumer. You can even
take the course with the attitude that the
Madison Avenue hacks are not only selling us
things we don't want, but corrupting our
society in the process.
But you'll probably change your mind.
See it all
in July.
The 1974-75 University of Oregon
General Catalog will be available after
July 15 for $2 at the University
Bookstore, EMU Main Desk, or on order
from the Office of Publications. Order
forms are available in department
offices or from the Office of
Publications.
Illustration is a segment of the 1974-75
General Catalog cover.