The University of Oklahoma Fall 1997

JMC4333 Contemporary Problems in Advertising

Instructor: Dr. Louisa Ha

Class Time: W 12:30 - 3:20 p.m. Classroom: COH 340

Office: COH 237

Office Hours: T,R 4:15.-6:15 p.m. W 3:30 - 4:30 p.m. and by appointment

Voice-mail: (405) 325-5229

E-mail: Louisa.S.Ha-1@ou.edu

Homepage: http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/hahome.shtml

Course Objective

  1. To introduce students to examine contemporary problems in advertising in depth, centered mostly on institutional values, social roles and functions, legal and regulatory issues, economic roles and values, and pertinent ethical problems and issues. A sound understanding of these issues and problems is essential to set the professional standard for the advertising industry.
  2. To develop students' critical and independent thinking toward advertising as a social institution and as a marketing tool for businesses.

Assigned Reading Packet

There is no textbook for this class. Students must either acquire a copy of the assigned reading packet or read the packet which has been put on reserve at the HPRC. A separate set of supplemental readings is put on reserve at the HPRC for your preparation of debates and term paper. All students are expected to read the assigned articles before coming to class.

Course Prerequisites

Students enrolled in this course must have completed JMC 2033, JMC3303 and

JMC 3333 if they are declared advertising sequence majors. Others are admitted by special permission only.

Course Structure

This course will be conducted in a seminar format. The success of a seminar is dependent upon your participation. You have to be prepared, present your points of views and react to other people's challenges. The role of the instructor is primarily to guide class discussions, debates, and clarify the key issues at the end of the class. Lectures from the instructor will play only a minimal role in this course.

Scholastic Honesty

Except the debates, all individual assignments must represent individual effort. An individual who copies from another individual's work will automatically receive a grade of 0 for this class. You are reminded to follow the University's policy toward plagiarism.

Grading

Favorite Web Site Report10 points
Presentation30 points
Discussion leader20 points
Term Paper30 points
Exams I & II30 points
Debates30 points
Abstracts20 points
Class Participation30 points
Total200 points

180 points or above A

160-179 points B

140-159 points C

120-139 points D

Under points F

Make-up Policy

You will not be granted any make-ups for your assignments. Under special circumstances with legitimate written excuses, you may request the instructor for a special arrangement to make up for the loss of grade or score during your absence.

Attendance and Classroom Policy

Class attendance is mandatory and you are obliged to observe classroom disciplines such as no chatting with classmates during the lecture session. You are encouraged to raise questions in class. Feel free to ask for further explanation.

Deadlines

All abstracts or reports submitted later than the class period on the due date are considered as late. No late exercises will be accepted unless a written evidence such as a physician's letter is accompanied with the request for late submission or make-ups.

Students with Disability Statement

If any member of the class feels that he or she has a disability and needs special accommodations of any nature, the instructor will work with you and the Office of Disabled Student Services to provide reasonable accommodations to ensure that you have a fair opportunity to perform in the class. Please advise the instructor of such disability and the desired accommodations at some point before, during, or immediately after the first scheduled class period.

Favorite Web Site Report

This assignment is to familiarize you with the web resources that the instructor has prepared for you in this class at the Research Reference link under JMC 4333 (http://www.ou.edu/class/jmc3333/4333a.htm). You are to select one of them as your favorite web site and explain why this web site is your favorite.

Abstracts

Beginning from September 10, you have to submit a half-page typed abstract summarizing the key points of the article. In classes that involve two topics in the same class period, you have to prepare TWO half-page abstracts on each of the minimum reading for that topic. All abstracts are due at the class period on that topic.

Debates

The purpose of the debates is to enhance students' understanding of the topic by arguing on the topic and serving as a judge of the debate. Each student will take turns to play the role of the affirmative case, the negative case, or the judge for assigned debate topics once during the semester. The debaters will be graded only by their performance in the oral presentation during the debate. The judges will decide which side win at each debate and have to submit a 3-page report on the debate synthesizing the viewpoints of both sides and explaining their judgments within a week after the debate. This report will be graded as the score of the judge.

Each debater is expected to conduct extra research on the debate topic. A full set of supplemental readings which can be used as reference materials for the debate are available at the HPRC. The web site for JMC4333 also provides hyperlinks to sources that are of use to the debates, but you should not only rely on it and the supplemental readings to do the research. Many materials are not on the web and the reading materials are some materials for you to get acquainted on the topics. You have to conduct additional traditional library research. The criteria in grading the presentation are:

  1. understanding of the issue, 2) ability to argue on the assigned case based on evidence, 3) clarity and confidence in the presentation, 4) usage of examples to illustrate the point and, 5) team spirit. As an evidence of your team spirit, each debate team should avoid redundancy in the presentation content.

Presentation

When assigned to make a presentation on a topic, the presenter will prepare a five-page synthesis of all the assigned reading materials (written in APA style), as well as any additional library research on the topic. Two copies of the synthesis should be submitted to the instructor on the same day as the presentation. One copy will be graded and returned including the grades for the synthesis (20 points) and the presentation (10 points). The other copy will be retained by the instructor.

The presenter has to present 20 to 30 minutes on the topic. The first 10-15 minutes should be devoted to an overview of the topic using the assigned materials and additional library research. The remaining time should be focused on answering the key question(s) on the topic as listed in the syllabus. Audio-visual aids should be used in the presentation when appropriate.

Discussion Leader

When assigned the role of discussion leader, the student should listen carefully to what the presenter says and take notes. When the presenter finishes the presentation, the discussion leader should pose questions to the presenter and the class to talk about the question. Discussion leader are graded on (1) provocativeness, (2) incisiveness, (3) insightfulness, (4) appropriateness, (5) persistence in asking questions obtaining responses from the classmates.

Exams

There will be two exams during the course of the semester. All exams will be in essay format. You should bring a blue book to each exam.

Term Paper

The term paper serves as a take-home final exam for this course. The topic is chosen by the student who must submit the topic for the instructor's approval on November 5. A term paper without the instructor's written approval of the topic will NOT be graded. The proposal should be one-page, single-spaced, and type-written. The proposal should contain these four sections: 1) initial title of the paper, 2) a one-sentence purpose, 3) a brief description of the problem, 4) a rationale as to why it is worth doing, 5) a bibliography listing at least five sources that can be used.

The term paper should be double-spaced, typed and within 15 pages including tables and a complete list of references. The paper must be written according to the APA style. The APA style manual is available in HPRC and on the web site of this course. The student must show extensive independent research and critical thinking on the topic. The paper will be graded by its organization and style (5%), independent research effort (10%) and critical thinking (10%).

Class Participation

Class participation grade is determined by the regularity of your attendance (60%) and your participation (asking and answering questions) in class discussions (40%). Bringing in articles/newspaper clipping on the discussion topics and suggestions to the instructors on improving the course are also counted as class participation.

Course Schedule

The following schedule is tentative. Students are responsible for any changes made in class. Underlined readings are the minimum readings for every student to prepare for class discussion.

Topic Readings

August 27 Course policies and procedures

Introduction Rotzoll et al. 1*

The controversies over advertising

The instructor will lead this topic to serve as an example of how to present a topic and lead discussion in the class.

UNIT 1 Advertising as an Institution

Sep 3 Institutional Analysis of Advertising Rotzoll et al. 3

Key questions:

Is advertising an institution?

What are the different perspectives on advertising as an institution? Which perspective do you agree most?

1. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________
Advertising and the Consumer Culture
Schudson

Key questions:

1) What is consumer culture?

2) What roles did advertising agencies, media, and mass production technology play in contributing to build the consumer culture in the United States?

2. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ___________________

Sep 10 Principles of Debates

Handout

(presented by the Instructor)

UNIT 2: Social and Cultural Issues

Sep 10 Subliminal Advertising

Twitchell, Rogers & Seiler

Key questions:

Twitchell gave a new definition of subliminal advertising. Do you agree to his definition? What kinds of advertisements would fall into subliminal advertising according to his definition?

Do you believe that advertising has subliminal effects on consumers and that advertisers and agencies alike use subliminal techniques in their advertising?

3. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Sep 17 Targeting at children: Issues on children's advertising

Kim, Raju & Lonial

Key questions:

Should children be protected from all kinds of advertising?

Does advertising provide any benefits to children?

4. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Targeting at homosexuals

Webster, Levin

Key questions: Have advertisers legitimized and supported homosexual

relationships by targeting at them? When and under what

conditions should gays and lesbians be treated as a special

target group?

5. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Sep 24 Debate 1: Advertising is persuasion, not information.

Targeting at ethnic minorities

Freeman, Bowen & Schmid

Key questions: Should minorities be targeted as a separate market with different creative and media strategies? Or have they become as mainstreamed as Freeman argued that they should be treated the same as the white Americans?

What are the problems in the portrayal of minorities in advertising?

6. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Oct 1 Stereotypes of women and the elderly in advertising

Whipple & Courtney, Robin et al.

Key question: Women and the elderly are often treated as victims of advertising by negative portrayals and stereotypes in advertising. As advertisers, can you create advertising and select media that will advertise to them effectively while not creating stereotypes on them?

7. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

The role of images in advertising

Messaris, Beatty

Key questions:

Why are sex and romance prevalent themes in advertising?

Can effective advertising be without sex and romance?

How do beer advertisers use images to evade the accusation of encouraging alcoholism?

8. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Oct 8 Cultural consequences of advertising

Pollay

Key questions: Pollay characterized advertising as a distorted mirror of the society. How does advertising distort the reality of the society? Do you think advertising reflects the society rather than changes it?

9. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Exam Review

Oct 15 Exam 1

UNIT 3 Economic Issues

Advertising and the Economy

Ekelund & Saurman

Key questions: Does advertising increase competition or hinder competition?

Does advertising waste the resources or improve the efficiency in using the resources in the society?

11. Presenter : ___________________

Discussion Leader : ____________________
Oct 22 Advertising and Product Consumption
Andrews & Franke

Key questions: Does advertising create unnecessary consumption of products?

Under what conditions may advertising stimulate the demand for products?

12. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: __________________
Advertising Response Functions Simon & Arndt

Key questions : Why is it so difficult to link sales growth with advertising investment? Can direct response advertising be the solution to establish the causal effect of advertising to sales?

13. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________
October 29 Debate 2: Media should be free from advertising support Bogart

Brand equity and effectiveness of sponsorship
Dyson & Hollis,

Crimmins & Horn

Key questions: What is brand equity? How does advertising build a brand's equity?

What is the relationship between sponsorship and advertising?

Why so many sponsorships only serve as management egos?

14. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________
November 5 Advertising and Product Price
Farris & Albion, Ehrneberg et al.

Key question: Does advertising lead to higher or lower consumer prices?

What evidence support your view?

15. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Comparative price advertising
Grewal & Compeau

Key questions: How effective is comparative advertising in capturing market share from competitors? Under what conditions will you use comparative advertising for your products?

16. Presenter: ___________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Term paper proposal due

November 12 Exam 2

UNIT 4 Regulatory and Legal Issues
The Commercial Speech Doctrine
Teeter et al*.

Key questions: 1) Should commercial speech be afforded less protection than other types of speeches? 2) Based on the commercial speech doctrine, should cigarette advertising be banned?

17. Presenter (1): ___________________

Discussion Leader (1): __________________

November 19 D. C. Lam Conference. No Class. Preparation for Debate 3.

November 26 Thanksgiving Holiday. No Class.
December 3 Debate 3: Self-regulations are much more effective than self-regulations in protecting consumers from controversial product advertising Fueroghne, Rotfeld, McDonough

Regulatory issues in different contexts: telemarketing and other new forms of advertising

Ha 1993, 1996


Key questions:

What are the legal concerns about new forms of advertising such as telemarketing?

How did governments in developing countries use regulations to protect their countries?. Should they use regulations to solve their problems?

18. Presenter : ___________________

Discussion Leader : __________________

Dec 10 UNIT 5: Ethical Issues and the Future of Advertising
Advertising in disguise: Product placement and advertorials Cameron et al., Stanley, Vollmers & Mizerski

Key questions: What are the ethical issues underlying the masking of advertising under editorial cover such as product placement and advertorials?

As a consumer, can you tell the difference between advertisements and editorial content in advertorials?

19. Presenter : ___________________

Discussion Leader: __________________

Professionalism and ethical standards in advertising
Stankey, Twitchell

Key questions: 1) Is advertising qualified as a profession? 2) What should be the minimum ethical requirements for advertising professionals? 3)What are the changes in the advertising industry? How will you prepare yourself as a future advertising professional?

20. Presenter: ____________________

Discussion Leader: ____________________

Dec 17 Term Paper due (5:00 p.m.)