The Advertising Educational Foundation Comes of Age
Jan 26, 2009
Click here to download the PDF of the AEF report.
Every semester, Professor William M. O'Barr, a professor of anthropology at Duke University who teaches several classes on advertising, welcomes a new crop of students, all of whom are already experts on the subject. Never mind that most of them have never taken a class or read a book about advertising, and possibly never even met an actual advertising executive. They already know everything they need to about the field, as far as they are concerned.
"That's the thing that's interesting about teaching a subject like this. When students come to class, everybody's already an expert," O'Barr says. "They've seen plenty of ads and have opinions about them."
Generally speaking, this is not a problem for professors in other academic departments. Students don't arrive on campus thinking they already know everything about applied mathematics, for example, or medieval poetry. But mention advertising, and most people, by the time they reach 18, have seen enough commercials or product placements or episodes of Mad Men to boast perfectly formed opinions on the subject.
If only those opinions weren't so misinformed.
Twenty five years ago, some of the advertising industry's most esteemed executives came together to formally combat such misperceptions, and the Advertising Educational Foundation was born. Originally conceived as a permanent public relations campaign to enhance perceptions of the advertising industry, the AEF has evolved to become the leading resource for academic thought regarding the advertising industry and its impact on society today.
"Our founding fathers-which included people like Alfred J. Seaman, CEO of SSC&B: Lintas, Jock Elliott, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, and Rena Bartos, director of research at J. Walter Thompson-recognized that advertising and its place in the total economic scheme of things really is misunderstood by many people," says Paula Alex, CEO of the AEF. "They realized that they could make an impact if they targeted academia, students and the thought leaders of tomorrow."
The non-profit AEF works with educators like Professor O'Barr, who is also an AEF board member, to help students better understand advertising as a cultural and economic force, as well as a profession and possible career choice. In turn, such educators share their research and insights with the advertising industry.
Think of it as a cultural exchange between two countries with mutual interests, but slightly different languages.
"The foundation is a way to establish a discourse with these professors that will filter down to students and hopefully make advertising a career choice," says Linda Sawyer, CEO of Interpublic Group ad agency Deutsch and AEF chairman emeritus.
AEF goes about its mission several ways. First, it runs two programs that open up dialogue and elevate the discourse between the advertising world and academia. The Visiting Professor Program places advertising and marketing professors inside ad agencies for eight days, where they can get real-life experience in how the business works. The other program, the Inside Advertising Speakers Program, sends agency and marketing executives into classrooms to talk about the issues and their experiences and answer student questions.
Another important way the AEF educates the academic world about advertising is through scholarly publications. Among the most prominent is the Advertising & Society Review (A&SR), a peer-reviewed scholarly journal that considers advertising from a social, economic, cultural and historical perspective with articles by some of the world's most influential liberal arts and social science academicians. Launched in 2000, and published by the AEF, the A&SR is published four times a year by the Johns Hopkins University Press Project MUSE and is read by some of the most influential professors in the U.S. and around the world.
But the defining AEF publication is "ADText: An Online Curriculum," a 20-unit living textbook about communications, marketing and advertising. ADText is important because no comprehensive textbook about advertising and its impact on society exists, which is just one reason the profession is so misunderstood by American college students and professors. ADText aims not only to fill that hole, but to do so using every advantage of the Internet; it includes video, audio, rich graphics and other dynamic content- and is continually revised and updated.
"ADText is completely different from a usual textbook," says Professor O'Barr. "The real TV commercials and print ads are embedded in there. It's completely innovative from a teaching and education point of view. Not only is it the latest invention content-wise, but it's the latest form in how we communicate."
AEF also holds an annual symposium to focus attention on a single issue in advertising; produces video documentaries for use in the classroom, either as stand-alone materials or to accompany ADText; and is developing an online archive and exhibit called Race, Ethnicity and Advertising in America 1890-2000 in collaboration with the curator of African-American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
After 25 years of aggressively pursuing its mission, the AEF has achieved real progress, educating countless professors about the realities of advertising and persuading scores of students to pursue it as a career option. But obstacles still exist.
"Look at the latest Yankelovich Report," says Alex, referring to the annual report on consumer attitudes toward career options. "Advertising is second from the bottom, which is about where it's always been. So I think the problem still exists."
Alex also points to new cultural interpretations of advertising- particularly AMC's Mad Men-as evidence that a cultural bias against advertising has not been eradicated. ("I watched the first show and I had to turn it off," she laughs.)
But the AEF continues to grow, and Alex is not the only one who thinks its most successful days are yet to come. "This used to be the best-kept secret in the industry," says Sawyer. "But the awareness level over the past four years has been like night and day… I think people now realize that this is a great organization that is doing great work on behalf of the industry."
"Besides," adds Alex, "you have to admit-there is some pretty terrific advertising out there today."
Which might be the greatest cultural exchange of all.
For more AEF coverage:
A New AEF for New Times
The Advertising Educational Foundation COmes of Age
Professors Swap Classroom for the Agency World
AEF Speakers Program Links Theory and Reality
ADText
The Big Project
