Advertising is a creative, and at times, controversial communicative genre that plays a central role in consumer culture. This course will challenge students to consider not only the creative dimensions of advertising but also to consider a sustainable social role for advertising. Students will be challenged to develop an understanding of the relationship between advertising and creativity and focus on how to develop innovative solutions to contemporary and social communication problems. The course will have a significant applied component: students will focus on developing the creative dimensions for an advertising campaign related to a contemporary social issue and engage imaginatively with agency briefs, examine how ideas are creatively expressed using words and images and develop advertising concepts, prepare a creative pitch, and explore the story-telling and copy-writing dimensions of advertising.