Final Project

Final Project Description (25 pts, 25% of your grade)

The purpose of this final project is to practice your application of the issues we discussed this semester and also keep you engaged with current ad campaigns, which you will be required to do as advertising professionals. The purpose of this project is to actively engage in in the world of ethical and unethical advertisements from a critical and thoughtful perspective. I would like you to use this opportunity to dive into the ethical issues related to social media platforms (the most trendy one), and this is the reason why the final project is given during the week when we discuss about the effect of social media on advertising.

Some basic rules (to nail it!):
1. DUE: 6/26 @ 11: 59 PM (EST)
NO LATE SUBMISSION WILL BE ACCEPTED.
You have 20 days to finish it, early submission is accepted.

2. Do not make any statement without justification. For example, you can’t suggest that “the advertiser should consider to use pop-up ad” without saying why it is a good choice. I strong recommend you to always cite at least one source to support your argument.

3. Citation! Citation! Citation! You need to cite every single source you used in your answer, with one consistent reference style (APA, AMA, Chicago, etc.) I do not recommend using direct quotations, try to paraphrase and tailor the information as you need. If you have to use direct quotation, remember to use the quotation mark. If you are not sure whether you should cite it, then cite it (D2L dropbox has plagiarism detector feature “turnitin” enabled, do not get yourself in trouble).

4. Double-spaced, Font 12, 1 inch margins. No specific page limit, but to make your answer clear, you should expect 4-6 pages. However, talking about things without data/evidence support does not help to get you get points either (see rule #2).

5. You are expected to write in an essay format, which means you shouldn’t write this project like answering open-ended questions. However, I expect that you thoroughly answer all of the questions listed in step 2.
6. Submit via D2L dropbox.

I expect high quality work from each of you. I expect it to be professional and befitting of what you might do in a business setting.

Step 1: Pick an ad case
Case requirements:
1. A real case (you need to provide at least one piece of evidence that you did not make up the case, such as the URL link, or pictures of the ad, etc.)
2. From recent 5 years (Generally after 2010)
3. Has been released on at least 1 social media platform (Facebook ad, google ad, virtual world ad, etc). You also can choose product placement. The goal is to avoid any traditional media such as newspaper, television, radio, etc.
4. Has to be able to link to at least one issue we talked or will talk about this semester (ad that involves children, elderly, minority, gender, any controversial products, social responsibility, etc.)

For example, MSU dairy store released a video on its Facebook page [social media platform] last year [recent years] about the “heart walk” campaign they had [issue- social responsible advertising].
(*** I made this up completely just to give you an example, you will need to find a real case***)

If you are not sure about the case you picked, feel free to email me and we can discuss about it, I am pretty open with the case choice as long as it satisfies the 4 requirements above. It is ALWAYS good to pick up the case early enough so you have enough time to think about it.

Step 2: Case evaluation (where you get all of your points)
1. (4 pts) What is the ad about? Describe the ad in 1 or 2 paragraphs. Remember to describe the key requirements in detail from step 1. Include the link or pictures as appendix. [If the ad has been released on multiple social media platforms, you can either discuss one in detail, or compare the multiple platforms, but no more than 3, otherwise you probably won’t be able to get anything clear].

2. (8 pts) Pretend you are the project manager for this ad, now why do you think this particular medium platform is a good/not great fit for your client’s product/service? List all the possible reasons and explain in detail. Even if you think it was a great fit, what could be the potential risk of using this platform (that you might need a contingency plan for it)? Also talk about the possible ethical issues related to this platform if applicable.

3. (8 pts) How do you think the specific issue(s) has been handled in the ad? Why do you think the presentation of the issue(s) is a good/not great fit for your client’s product/service? List all the possible reasons and explain in detail. Even if you think the issue(s) was a great fit, what could be the potential ethical risk of including the issue(s)? [If the ad you picked presented more than 1 issue, such as a social responsible ad on children, you can either talk about 1 issue in detail, or try to cover both issues].

4. (5 pts) If you can re-do the ad in the future, what will you do to improve the ad? Remember that you cannot change the ad completely, which means that you will need to stay with social media (can be another plate form) and the same issues. List your solutions/suggestions and discuss in detail.