There are two different educational paths and two different broad career paths for those working in advertising and marketing. It’s important to give some consideration up front as to which suits you best and choose the appropriate educational program.
First, in advertising things are usually broken up into the creative side and the business side.
The business side are the people who actually decide on the overall marketing strategy for products and services. Marketing is much broader than just advertising — companies also have to make decisions about the strategy for pricing, distribution, which products to sell, new products, etc. Advertising and promotion is just a very small part of the picture. Usually, the business side sets the promotional goals and then turns it over to the creative side for implementation.
People on the business side of things usually have titles like account executive, campaign manager or marketing manager. The best training for this side of things is a marketing degree from a good solid business program. In that program, you’ll be exposed to a basic understanding of overall business strategy, and study each of the individual areas of marketing, including advertising and promotion, in some detail. You won’t learn how to write ads or produce commercials in this major, but you will learn a broad set of skills that can be applied to many different jobs.
On the creative side, people have titles like copy writer and creative executive. As I said, this side focuses in on the implementation of promotional strategy - they do things like write ads, come up with the concept for promotional campaigns, produce commericals, etc.
People on the creative side usually need a very different set of skills than folks on the business side. The best program if this is what you want to do is a communications school with an emphasis specifically on advertising. In that type of program you’ll learn a little bit about overall marketing techniques, but the main focus will be on developing your creative skills for things like writing ads, designing campaigns, and even graphic design.
These are two very different career paths, with two very different preferred educational paths.
In general, a degree in “journalism” is not going to give you the skills you need for either type of job. Journalism majors tend to focus on an entirely different type of writing. Some “journalism schools” however do have programs that focus on advertising/public relations and that is fine.
In my opinion, the best schools if you want to be on the creative side of things in advertising are, in order, Syracuse, University of Southern California, and Northwestern (the integrated marketing communications program). All three schools have very strong programs, with many connections in the industry.
If you want to major in marketing, look for a school that offers more than one or two classes specifially focused on advertising and promotion.
If you’re looking at other communications programs, look to see what classes they offer specifically focused on advertising, public relations, and marketing communications. Good preparation will have all three, as well as opportunities for internships at advertising agencies and public relations firms.
Whichever path you decide on, try to take classes in the other side if possible (i.e., if you are majoring in advertising, take marketing and general business classes; if you’re majoring in marketing, a few classes on copywriting would come in useful)
Hope this helps - I spent many years on the creative side of advertising, before switching over to the business side after returning to school and taking graduate level classes in marketing (I’m now a freelance journalist specializing in marketing topics). The switch can be made, but for entry level jobs, it’s best to think about which side most appeals to you and go from there.
-carolynn