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I'd like to go further into advertising, since it it something I'm interested in doing in the future.
What type of subjects should I pick in school and also in the future; so what kind of things I should study?
A teacher I talked to said that Philosophy would be very useful, does anyone have any experience with this?
Any answers would be appreciated! :)
Very broadly speaking, there are two sides to advertising. There is the more strategic side, and then there is the implementation and design oriented side.
The former deals with the more strategic aspects. The issue here is who to advertise to (understanding consumer segmentation and so on), and which resources to use/ focus on. This section fits under the marketing strategy.
The latter deals more with an actual understanding of communication and design. These people are usually experts in formulating ads, designing commercials, communicating through images, etc. They know how to best get the message across to the segments that were chosen above.
Now obviously these two are not totally separate, but people do tend to specialise in certain aspects. I for one know quite a bit about the former, but I would never try to actually design an ad.
I do not know what courses are available these days in school (and certainly not in a US school), so I will tell you the kind of thing that is useful. The answers below mine were good, so there will be some overlap.
For the former, a good foundation in business management disciplines (like strategy and marketing) is useful. Anything that emphasises your ability to plan really, even if these courses are not directly related. It is much easier to become a good planner and organiser if one starts early. The skills are the same no matter what the discipline.
For the latter, any courses to do with media, with design (anything from art, since some ad designers are really artists, to computer related courses in specialist programs), or with communication. Remember the idea here is twofold, first to understand how people perceive and react to a message (whether a picture or a tv ad) and second how to actually design that message.
In all honesty I have no idea how philosophy can work here, but its such a broad subject it might be good to ask your teacher which branch he meant. I would rather say that psychology would be extremely useful, since that gives you an insight into how people think (and the object of the game is to influence their thoughts, actions and desires).
Well, that more or less it. Good luck :)
(Rating: 5) Thank you, very, very much appreciated! :)
Now I know what I should focus on and also which things I should consider.