Ready to be new again

And thus another semester is afoot. It seems like just yesterday I was scrambling to finish an 8-page final paper on Greco-Roman religion in a harrowing effort to get a B in a class on said subject.

Now I find myself an actual upperclassman. With half of college over with, I probably should know approximately where I'm going in life. That's just where I'm at: an approximate goal. I know I want to be involved in this industry. That's about it.

Our school has two "tracks" for advertising majors: management and creative. Either side will tell you that management people are the ones that interact with clients, make business decisions, wear suits and carry briefcases. Creatives wear jeans and loaf in bean bag chairs. Only the inflection in their respective voices changes when summarizing their own track.


I'm not sure which route I want to take. I had originally thought management because I do like to analyze and study advertising and follow the business moving and shaking. I also thought I wasn't creative enough for the opposite to be my profession. I have had second thoughts about that since, having been told that my creative work is passable. While not a Photoshop "wizard" as my Portfolio professor would say, I think I'm ok at conceptualizing ideas in ads.

This confusion is why I opted to take two completely different advertising courses this semester: ADV 401; Portfolio One and ADV 507; Advertising Media.

I had 401 today, and have come to find out that now is when the legendary competition in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications really begins. For every "project," only one student in the class will receive the "agency recommendation" and a perfect grade, everyone else can do no better than a 90 ("presented to client"), or otherwise can score an 85 or lower.

I had just began to get to know most of the people in my major, and now I have to compete with them? Also, apparently, we'll be teamed up at various points and try to "Beat the Clock" with ad ideas in less than a class period. And who said class couldn't simulate the real world? I'm excited about the opportunities, but a little worried about the workload, especially considering I don't know what to expect from 507, a class on the opposite end of the spectrum and not to mention a graduate level course. Yikes.

First assignments from 401: Review the best ads of the year from '85, '95, or 2005 and pick a favorite, and choose the one campaign you can remember that was most effected you. I'll report back when I make my choices.

Fall semester 2009: here goes nothin'