One Tip At Half-Mast In Advertising
This is how it feels sometimes, even when we’re on a nice, relaxing break from all the projects and deadlines. The landscape in the rear-view mirror looks pleasant, but you’re still on open waters and there’s no telling what might be coming next. Well, there’s some telling. We know it’s eventually going to be more difficult than what has already passed, it’s just cloudy and we don’t know how yet.
Current Newhouse students undoubtedly understand the implication, but maybe you’re an outsider. It’s been a tough journey so far, and I’ve wondered at many of the tougher points how a ‘Half-Mast’ (half of my Master’s degree) would look on a resume. Fortunately, I pushed through boot camp and the fall semester without too many scratches and have learned a few easy tips that I can pass on. So, for prospective students or anyone else who wants a tip from my experience at Half-Mast, read on for one of my bigger mistakes this year.
Tunnel-vision can impact anyone.
I applied to Newhouse last winter and visited the campus for their Preview Day in the spring, which gave me a chance to make a final evaluation before accepting enrollment in the Advertising program. Coincidentally, around that time is also when one of the latest advertising disasters occurred: the infamous Pepsi ad with Kendall Jenner (if you haven’t seen it, I included it here). Obviously, the second-best ranked cola brand in the United States did not intend to offend anyone with their commercial, but it was a little out-of-place. The protests occurring around that time were still very tense and the issues unsolved. Pepsi was not seen as the bold brand promoting love because the decision-makers responsible for the commercial did not stop to consider how consumers would perceive it. Instead, Pepsi received headlines such as, “If the Black Lives Matter movement were led by a 21-year-old white supermodel armed with a can of fizzy soda, then maybe everyone would just get along.” (Smith, 2017) Saturday Night Live even took the opportunity to cover this mistake, which I thought was funny and you can watch it here if you haven’t already.
I knew this was a terrible flop and vowed that I would not let myself have such tunnel-vision to let this happen when I was creating my advertising projects. That’s easy to say, but there’s a lot of ways that tunnel-vision can impact you. I did not create anything that was culturally insensitive this semester, but I definitely experienced tunnel-vision several times. I found that I focused so much on certain parts of my projects that I left out other important pieces. I was so intent on delivering one line of my presentation perfectly that I blanked out near the end and completely lost my groove. I found a great source for a research paper and drove that point home well, but neglected to realize that my final draft did not have a clear focus. Fortunately, I managed to get through all my classes without a major issue, but I had so many moments where I thought, “Man, I really should have taken a step back here.”
Although hindsight is 20/20, I learned to do a few things to keep these mistakes as low as possible:
Thoroughly review the brief/instructions – more than once. Advertising projects often ask for more than one thing. There’s plenty of tasks to complete to achieve your end goal and not many steps are simple. If you want a foolproof project, have an answer for every possible question.
Create a checklist for yourself (or with your team for group projects) and ensure that every part is done. This isn’t news to a lot of graduate students, but the key part is reflecting on the checklist often. At one point, I missed one important part of a project and did not realize it until hours before it was due. It was too late to restructure everything in the finishing steps, but I would not have had that issue if I wrote down that I wanted to include this part and revisited before the final walk-through.
Have an outsider review your work. Sometimes, you want a second opinion from someone who is not along for the ride. I mentioned that Pepsi’s problem (in my opinion) was a lack of understanding for other points-of-view, so how does your work appear to someone who has not discussed direction and ideas with you? Even people who are completely unfamiliar with your line of work can be helpful, as clarity should be evident to any reader. I try to have a complete outsider review my work now and ask them to give me the main idea. If it lines up with my intentions, it’s probably in decent shape.
I know this is a long tip, but I hope it’s helpful.
References
Smith, Alexander. (2017). “Pepsi Pulls Controversial Kendall Jenner Ad After Outcry.” NBC News. Retrieved from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/pepsi-ad-kendall-jenner-echoes-black-lives-matter-sparks-anger-n742811
