Invited Commentary on Reflection

International Advertising Education

“…While most studies regarding the curriculum tend to focus on how advertising students can acquire international advertising awareness and skills as part of their major, Ganahl and Rose (2000) propose that programs could require a minor outside of the major that relates to intercultural communication. In 2000, they predicted that, based on the growing global economy, "intercultural strategic communication" (p. 4) would become the industry standard.…”

“…The literature about the international advertising curriculum focuses heavily on international advertising practitioners' needs and identifies student learning objectives and content. Several studies (e.g., Ganahl & Rose, 2000;Heiman, 2001;Kerr et al, (2009); Lee et al, 1997;University of Texas, 2000) have also identified how international advertising education can become more prominent in the advertising curriculum by adding more than one course that focuses on global advertising issues and skills, offering study-abroad courses, encouraging students to add minors or interdisciplinary courses outside the major, and adding international advertising content throughout the advertising curriculum. It should be noted, however, that recent curricular innovations are moving away from a focus on mastery of content and toward demonstration of competencies (DeZure et al, 2003).…”

“…In addition to making substantive changes to the curriculum, Ganahl and Rose (2000) suggest several teaching strategies that individual faculty can implement in order to give students better opportunities to learn intercultural communication skills. One such method would be to encourage students to develop a geographic area of special interest that they could explore through special topics courses or other off-campus learning opportunities.…”

“…Offering an international advertising course in the United States as part of the curriculum appears currently to be the most common way of exposing students who are interested in global advertising to practices around the globe. However, Ganahl and Rose (2000) suggest incorporating study-abroad experiences into one's teaching to offer students an opportunity to learn and apply intercultural communication skills. Study-abroad experiences can be incorporated in a variety of different ways.…”

“…Participating in competitions is also an example of experiential learning. Ganahl and Rose (2000) recommend participating in an advertising student competition such as IAA's InterAd competition described earlier, as well as integrating intercultural case studies and international trade and economic development simulation software in an existing course. Using the case study approach in a competitive scenario is an example of collaborative learning that actively engages the learners in "joint discovery, analysis, and use of information" (Theall & Farrell, 2003, p. 2492, while also bridging the gap between theory and practice.…”