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Latest Module Specifications

Current Academic Year 2025 - 2026

Module Title Analysing Advertising
Module Code MAD1032 (ITS: CM212)
Faculty Communications School Humanities & Social Sciences
NFQ level 8 Credit Rating 5
Description

This module explores contemporary advertising as it operates across a broad range of different media. Advertisements, the advertising industry and advertising audiences are examined from a variety of theoretical perspectives, with a view to encouraging a critical awareness of the social significance of living and working in an increasingly promotional media culture.

Learning Outcomes

1. explain the historical development of the advertising industry in the context of key social and economic changes, including the birth of psychoanalysis
2. critically analyse a broad range of advertising texts using a variety of methodological approaches, including content, semiotic, discourse, feminist and reception analysis
3. assess the ideological and psychological impact of advertising in western societies with reference to the relevant theoretical material
4. explain the concept of subvertising, identify examples and explain the strategies behind them


WorkloadFull time hours per semester
TypeHoursDescription
Lecture25weekly class contact
Independent Study40General research and reading
Directed learning40Exam preparation (including library time)
Online activity20Use of course-related material on Loop
Total Workload: 125
Section Breakdown
CRN20681Part of TermSemester 2
Coursework0%Examination Weight0%
Grade Scale40PASSPass Both ElementsY
Resit CategoryRC1Best MarkN
Module Co-ordinatorNeil O'BoyleModule Teacher
Assessment Breakdown
TypeDescription% of totalAssessment Date
Poster presentation Subvertisement20%Week 8
Formal ExaminationEnd-of-term exam80%End-of-Semester
Reassessment Requirement Type
Resit arrangements are explained by the following categories;
RC1: A resit is available for both* components of the module.
RC2: No resit is available for a 100% coursework module.
RC3: No resit is available for the coursework component where there is a coursework and summative examination element.

* ‘Both’ is used in the context of the module having a coursework/summative examination split; where the module is 100% coursework, there will also be a resit of the assessment

Pre-requisite None
Co-requisite None
Compatibles None
Incompatibles None

All module information is indicative and subject to change. For further information,students are advised to refer to the University's Marks and Standards and Programme Specific Regulations at: http://www.dcu.ie/registry/examinations/index.shtml

Indicative Content and Learning Activities

The advertising industry: an historical overview
News brokers to agencies, internationalisation

The birth of promotional culture
From products to brands, lifestyle advertising

Advertising as communication
Semiotic analysis

The psychology of advertising
Bernays, Freud, Dichter, Jung

Gender and sexuality in advertising
Postfeminism, Raunch Culture and Lad Culture

Cultural identity and ethnicity in advertising
Race, ethnicity, othering

Postmodernity, postmodernism and advertising
Irony, pastiche, intertextuality

Public information campaigns
Drink-driving, smoking, AIDS, condoms

Subvertising
Culture-jamming and Adbusters

Indicative Reading List

Books:
  • Einstein, Mara.: 2016, Black Ops Advertising., O/R Books, New York,
  • Serazio, Michael.: 2013, Your Ad Here: The Cool Sell of Guerrilla Marketing., New York UP, New York,
  • West, Emily and Mathew P. McCallister: 2013, The Routledge Companion to Advertising and Promotional Culture, Routledge, London,
  • Neil O'Boyle: 2011, New Vocabularies, Old Ideas, Peter Lang,
  • Chris Wharton: 2013, Advertising as Culture, Intellect, UK,
  • Joseph Turow and Matthew P. McAllister: 2009, The Advertising and Consumer Culture Reader, Routledge,
  • Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter: 2006, The Rebel Sell: How the Counter Culture Became Consumer Culture, Capstone,
  • Eric Gorden and David Bogen: 2011, Attention, Please! Choreographing Attention with the Tools of Digital Distraction, Routledge,
  • Tom Reichert and Jacqueline Lambiase: 2005, Sex in Consumer Culture: The Erotic Content of Media and Marketing, Routledge,
  • Celia Lury: 2004, Brands: the Logos of the Global Economy, Routledge,
  • Christina Spurgeon: 2007, Advertising and New Media, Routledge,
  • Anandi Ramamurthy: 2003, Imperial Persuaders: Images of Africa and Asia in British Advertising, Manchester University Press,
  • John O’Shaughnessy and Nicholas Jackson O’Shaughnessy: 2003, Persuasion in Advertising, Routledge,
  • Mica Nava et al.: 1996, Buy This Book: Studies in Advertising and Consumption, Routledge,
  • Jon McDonough: 2002, The Advertising Age Encyclopaedia of Advertising, Fitzroy Dearborn,
  • Angela Goddard: 2002, The Language of Advertising: Written Texts, Routledge,
  • Naomi Klein: 2002, No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs, Picador,
  • Anne Cronin: 2003, Advertising Myths: the Strange Half-Lives of Images and Commodities, Routledge,
  • Gill Branston and Roy Stafford: 2010, The Media Student's Book, 5th edition, Routledge,


Articles:
  • Messner, M.A. and Montez de Oca, J.: 2005, ‘The Male Consumer as Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events’, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 30 (3), pp1879-1909, 519006
  • 2017: Portal or police? The limits of promotional paratexts., Critical Studies in Media Communication, 34(2), 111-1, 519007, 1
  • ‘Beer Commercials: A Manual on Masculinity’: Craig, S. (ed.) Men, Masculinity and the Media. Newbury Park, London, New Dehli: Sage Publications, pp78-92, 519008, 1, Marsha F. Cassidy
  • Janet Staiger and Sabine Hake (Eds.) Convergence Media History: 519009, 1, R. Danielle Egan and Gail Hawkes, 2008
  • 519010: 1, Neil O'Boyle, 2006, 'Addressing Multiculturalism? Conservatism and Conformity; Access and Authenticity in Irish Advertising, Translocations, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp. 94-117,
  • 1: Martin Morris, 2005, 'Interpretability and social power, or, why postmodern advertising works', Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 27, No. 5, 697-718,
Other Resources

None

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