I’m currently in high school, and my school has a nice internship agency. I want to major in journalimd in college, with a concentration in advertising, and eventually become a copywriter, so the ad form would be a better fit, but I wasn’t sure if it might be better to get a broader feel for the major at the newspaper. The Agency is The Martin Agency, one of the best in the nation, and the paper is the Richmond - Times - Dispatch, a decent regional paper. Advice please!
Advertising agencies and newspapers are very different businesses! You would pick up potential work/life skills at either, but they’ll be vastly different experiences. Agency life is pretty tough, but I would lean towards the agency for your internship since you really are interested in copywriting. You’ll get an up close & personal glimpse at how it works and see if you really like it, and either way pick up some valuable skills. I would only do the newspaper internship if you’re really interested in pursuing traditional journalism (reporting, research, headlines, decks, ledes, etc.), which it doesn’t sound like you are. You might want to be very selective when you apply to schools, as well. Journalism and advertising are quite different–if you don’t want to learn reporting, etc. you may not want to major in journalism. I majored in journalism but now work in marketing, and there are many things I have to do–including copywriting!–that I had zero prep for in my journalism major (branding being a big one). There are schools with advertising majors, or communications majors that dovetail nicely into advertising/copywriting and are less heavy on reporting/journalism. BU has an advertising/PR major, for example.
Thanks. In a somewhat related question, is there really any difference between an Advertising or PR major? Some schools, like UNC or Syracuse offer both and I’m not sure which would provide more benefits. Also, some schools only have PR and I didn’t know if that would make it any less helpful.
Advertising and PR are definitely a bit different, but every school that others one/both will approach them differently, so you’ll need to dig into the specifics of the department. Generally the distinction tends to be: in advertising you are developing/supporting the brand identity through advertising campaigns & tactics. Usually you work at an agency–it’s long hours, fast-paced, lots of thinking on your feet/coming up with big creative concepts & selling them to brands (ie: Mad Men). It’s the ads you see on TV and in magazines, and now also broad social/digital/brand integration strategies. PR is more backend/reactive (though not always), where your job is to manage a company/brand’s consumer facing brand strategy, usually more along the lines of perception, consumer relationships, launches, event management. It’s easier to get “in house jobs” for PR–ie: work directly for a specific company instead of working for an agency (agency life is not for everyone). And marketing is an extension from PR and can also be a blend of both PR & advertising (I work in marketing, in-house, and I do both consumer facing branding strategy as well as copywriting & media buying).
Some advertising majors will cover everything, including things that fall under PR–press releases, brand image triage/rehabilitation, marketing, etc., but others won’t. Honestly the trifecta of advertising-PR-marketing has a LOT of latitude to fit a range of talents/interests/career preferences, and I think it’s worth exploring all three. I don’t ever want to work in advertising, or even PR, but marketing is a great fit for me–it dovetails nicely from my journalism major (b/c marketing & PR are the flip side of journalism in many ways). I had no idea I’d like marketing so much b/c I only ever saw the advertising/PR side of things in school (lots of extroverts, type A people–I’m more of an analytical introvert).
So look at each school’s program and see how easy it is to major in one thing but maybe cross-pollinate to take classes in other things. You can actually see how you like the agency–if you do, I would major in advertising. If a school only has PR, look at their sample classes and see who the professors are–they may cover more bases than just PR, but if they don’t, see if the school has a communication major.
Yeah, I too am more of an introvert, but I definitely want to do some Copywriting, which of the three would be best for that? And if it’s marketing, can I take that without being in the business school? I dont want to too much math, that’s a weakness of mine.