Note:  prior to starting this assignment, there is a class discussion regarding sensory deprivation and the concept of silence.  Brainstorming exercises are conducted to attempt to describe silence in various forms and in various situations as being positive and negative.
Students learn to clearly express ideas and advertising concepts using excellent written communication and creatively applying verbal messages, font selection and color to create an outstanding ad with impact. 

The scenario:  The Canadian Hard of Hearing Association (CHHA) has approached you to create an incredible campaign for their new awareness initiative. CHHA is the national voice of all hard of hearing Canadians. It is a non-profit, self-help, bilingual consumer organization run by and for persons who are hard of hearing. The philosophy of CHHA is to produce knowledgeable hard of hearing consumers who understand how to have their needs met. Its mission is to raise public awareness concerning issues that are important for persons who are hard of hearing, to promote their integration in Canadian society, to remove any barriers to their participation and to generally make every community in Canada a better place for persons who are hard of hearing.  

The mission:  
1.             Students represent a creative agency who has agreed to use their advertising expertise and resources to give back to a charitable organization.  The goal is to make the hearing population of Canada sensitive to CHHA's mission, and encourage them to donate time or money to this cause.
2.             Students must show sensitivity.  This advertising is not meant to be a pity party.  Members of CHHA are active an vital contributors to society and must be treated with the respect they are due.  Choose your wording carefully.  Put yourself in their place.
3.             Of course, there's a catch. You may not use any images at all in this assignment, other than the CHHA logo.  Your ad must be a copy-only ad, so choice of wording and font selection is of the utmost importance.
4.             Research this organization and its members and use this information to identify your specific target market, including psychographic descriptions and create a message strategy for your advertisement.

This assignment is the fourth of six in the class and at this point in the semester, students are really beginning to become bored with the standard "image + headline + tagline" challenges they've faced to date.  It shakes them up to have one of the elements that they rely upon most removed completely.  The resulting work has been adopted, on occasion, by the charitable organization.
 
Shared by Kimberly Donaldson, Cambrian College

Get ready to test your ethical boundaries. Find six print ads you feel are "ethically questionable."

• Write up a one-page critique of each ad. Explain why you feel it is ethically questionable--focusing on the ad and not the product itself (i.e., not "drinking is bad and shouldn't be advertised," but "ads promoting alcohol should not target minors . . ."). Focus your comments on the target, placement, content, and so forth.
• Next, write a short survey. Poll 10 people from various backgrounds on the ads you found ethically questionable, but add in two neutral ads (ads that are not "ethically questionable").
• Write a summary of the results. Begin with a quantitative summary. Move onto to a commentary considering the following questions: Did the people you polled feel like you? Did you notice any demographic (age, ethnicity, gender, or income) patterns? What did you find that was surprising? End with a short reflection asking yourself: What kind of socially responsible person do I want to be? What is the advertising industry's responsibility? What would I do if I was asked to work on something I felt was ethically wrong or simply bad for society at large?

Adapted from an exercise shared by Kimberly Selber, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Texas-Pan American.

Whether it's an advertising copywriter struggling to nail that one perfect headline or a software developer searching for the next killer ap, there can be a method to the madness of creation. Like a jazz musician or an improvisational comic, this technique allows you to build off of ideas or themes and spin them into completely new directions. One thought leads to three. Those new three each lead to another three. And so on and so on. The trick is to not stop too soon. There will be time to edit, rationalize, and flesh out later.

• Your teacher will introduce a brand and note the objective at hand.
• Working in pairs or small tams, grab a stack of Post-it notes.
• Jot one idea down per Post-it note. Time is limited. You've got 15 minutes to post as many ideas as possible. Unlimit your thoughts.
• Review your Post-its and cluster them by concept. Pick your top ideas, using them as jumping-off points, and repeat.
• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
• One you've got three or four killer ideas, see which ones have legs using the same Post-it note technique to extend each idea.
• Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Adapted from an exercise shared by Jeff Ericksen, Founder and Instructor, Ms. Coffmansen's Portfolio Finishing School.

Sometimes it's hard to determine the brand voice--a way to articulate a brand's personality. Here's one way to help understand how one brand's voice might stack up to its competition.

• Pick two competing brands--for example: Apple and Dell.
• Now select one student to draw two stick people on the board. Call one Apple and one Dell. Next generate a list of bulleted profile attributes next to each. Focus on demographics and psychographics (where they live, what they do, kids, income, hobbies... you know the drill). The idea is to sketch out who Apple or Dell would be, if each was a person.
• Next draw a speech bubble by each. Apple and Dell have just run into each other on the street. They know each other but are not friends. What might they say to each other? Fill in the bubble.
• Now for the interesting part. Give each one a think bubble. What are Apple and Dell thinking about each other--and can't or won't say? That's where you really get a picture of the brand as a person. This is a great way to make a brand real and get at brand personality. Fill in this bubble.
• Compare and contrast how each brand has its own personality.

Adapted from an exercise shared by Sue Northey, Vice President, Planning, Cramer-Krasselt, Milwaukee, WI.

This time you need to enlist the help of your teacher. Tell him or her you need a cube--a very particular cube. It's a brainstorming cube. Like every cube, it will have six sides. In addition, this cube has one of the following written on each side: Describe it. Associate it. Compare it. Analyze it. Apply it. Argue for/against it.