The course aims to provide students with the skills necessary to understand the advertising language and its evolution with reference to the current media context. The course includes a partnership with Alkemy, one of the top advertising agency worldwide, to help students understand the role and the importance of the creative process underlying the launch of a communication campaign. The course adopts a problem-based approach in order to offer students the opportunity to apply theories and models to concrete cases and to develop effective, realistic and implementable campaigns. To this end, lectures will be widely integrated with exercises aimed at encouraging interaction, q&a sessions, case analysis, guest interventions and project works. The task designed in collaboration with the agency will allow students to work in groups, acting as they were a real advertising agency, and to explore the various aspects that contribute to the conception and the creation of a communication campaign of which the topic would be brands’ Social Commitment. Also, the evaluation will be based on continuous assessment as well.

Knowledge and understanding: The integration of advertising semiotics with the testimony of professionals from the creative process (Alkemy) will allow students to understand the functioning of a communication campaign taking into consideration the role that cultural tensions play in shaping the positioning/repositioning of a brand. Applying knowledge and understanding: Skills will be achieved through lectures, case studies, exercises, project work (Project Work). Students will be able to: - understand the process of building an advertising communication campaign, from the brief to its realization. - analyze the creative dimension of the advertising message, the rhetorical and performative use of written text, images and sounds. - use the skills acquired to simulate the realization of a communication campaign under the supervision of the teacher and with the support of the partner of the Project work. - use semiotics to understand the level of effectiveness of communication campaigns, to break down and analyze adv strategies, and to plan communication actions responsive to brand objectives. Making judgements: Students are expected to be able to technically analyze the impact of the advertising language in the public sphere, while developing a critical spirit for evaluating the role that advertising plays not only in the consumer experience but more generally in a cultural and social perspective. Communication skills: The course will allow students to acquire an appropriate lexicon for the analysis and design of advertising communication. The project work will allow students to strengthen the communication skills (both written and visual) necessary to interact effectively with the different subjects involved in the realization of an advertising communication campaign. Learning skills: Students will learn to evaluate analytically the reasons for the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the advertising message, also in a multicultural perspective, while familiarizing themselves with the creative work necessary to give concrete form to the brief of a brand.

- The process of building a communication campaign. Project work in Partnership with Alkemy - How is cultural branding different? - Leveraging cultural and political authority. - Branding as cultural activism. - Semiotic approach to advertising. - The decomposition of advertising and packaging - Brand language. - Methods and models of semiotic analysis. • Cultural innovation.

ATTENDANT STUDENTS 1. Holt, D. B., (2004). How brands become icons: The principles of cultural branding. Harvard business press (Chapt. 2; 4; 5; 9) 2. Mangano D., Marrone G. (2015) "Brand language. Methods and models of semiotic analysis" in Rossolatos G., Handbook of brand semiotics, Kassel, Kassel University Press, p. 46-88. 3. Holt, D. B. (2020). “Cultural Innovation. The secret to building breakthrough businesses”. Harvard Business Review Sept./Oct. 2020 Issue. hNps://hbr.org/2020/09/culturalinnovation NON ATTENDANT STUDENTS 1. Holt, D. B., (2004). How brands become icons: The principles of cultural branding. Harvard business press (Chapt. 1; 2; 4; 5; 9) 2. Oswald, L., (2015), Creating Value. The theory and practice of marketing semiotics research, New York, Oxford University Press (Chapt. 1; 2; 3; 5) 3. Mangano D., Marrone G. (2015) "Brand language. Methods and models of semiotic analysis" in Rossolatos G., Handbook of brand semiotics, Kassel, Kassel University Press, p. 46-88. 4. Holt, D. B. (2020). “Cultural Innovation. The secret to building breakthrough businesses”. Harvard Business Review Sept./Oct. 2020

Project work. Continuous assessment: group work

ATTENDING STUDENTS • Continuous assessment – 20% of the final grade: 2 group activities (during on-campus lectures) • Project work in groups – 50% of the final grade. • Final written exam – 30% of the final grade (graded on a scale of /30) NON ATTENDING STUDENTS • Final written exam – 100% of the final grade (graded on a scale /30)

Strong interest in the topics reviewed. Thesis project proposal: structured literature review, deepening of relevant issues in the field of interest. Qualitative methodology.