Symposium addresses issues affecting advertising in popular culture

By Lindsay Brasington

“Ad Bowl Symposium 2 proves that television advertising is alive and well — at least for big events,” said Bonnie Drewniany, professor of advertising at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications and the mastermind behind the annual Ad Bowl Symposium.

The second-annual Symposium was an in-depth look at the issues affecting advertisements in popular culture. “Lively and thought-provoking presentations from advertising professionals, professors and students explored diverse subjects, ranging from season finales of popular shows to the finales of sporting events,” said Prof. Drewniany.

The students in Prof. Drewniany’s Super Bowl Commercials class last year chose the theme of “television extravaganzas and communal audiences” because they noticed the current pop culture trend that people like to get together in groups to watch certain TV shows. This tendency allows friends to react immediately to the shows and catch each others’ reactions, Drewniany said.

This year’s Symposium took place January 25-26 at the Carolina Coliseum and focused on a variety of issues ranging from the Super Bowl to the writers’ strike to the NCAA, NASCAR and Survivor. Educators from schools across the country came to USC to share their research on how advertising in our culture has been changing in recent years.

The first part of the Symposium featured presentations about advertising in Hollywood and the writers’ strike currently taking place. Following a panel discussion about advertising in Hollywood, Dean Charles Bierbauer gave a presentation on politics through the decades, showing the progression of various tactics used by campaigners over the years.

In the second part of the Symposium Dr. Mark S. Nagel of the College of Hospitality, Sport and Retail Management at USC, spoke about the NCAA’s strict rules on college athletic game advertisements and whether or not it is breaking its own rules governing the content of the commercials.

“The NCAA is historically a strict, rule-based organization, and for Dr. Nagel to find in his research that the NCAA may be contradicting their own advertising rules was extremely intriguing to say the least,” said Kyle Kemp, an Honors College student currently enrolled in Drewniany’s Super Bowl Commercials course.

The third section of the Symposium was dedicated to Survivor, a show that certainly draws a communal audience. Prof. Lisa Sisk and Drewniany talked about the creative genius and advertising behind the Survivor series, focusing on the differences between advertising during the original season and how much it had changed by season 15, Survivor: China.

Jaime Dugan, USC student and contestant on Survivor: China, was at the Symposium to talk about her experience on the show. She shared several favorite memories of being behind the scenes of one of television’s most watched programs. “To have a real-life Survivor participant on this panel was very exciting!” said Dr. Birgit Wassmuth, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, Kennesaw State University.

Dugan shared her stories in “Behind the Scenes of Survivor China.” She said her favorite memory of the whole experience was when she snuck snake wine and Chinese beer back to her camp after the merge feast, then sang and danced around the camp fire with the others in her group. “We sang everything from The Little Mermaid to Kenny Chesney,” said Dugan. “I taught Peih Gee how to shag. It was a blast!”

The final section of the Symposium was appropriately dedicated to the Super Bowl, foreshadowing the renowned Ad Bowl the following weekend, where students voted for their favorite Super Bowl ads. Speakers talked about the celebrities, gender issues and diversity in Super Bowl ads in recent years. Drewniany compared and contrasted different Super Bowl ad ranking systems, showing how different audiences value very different components as to what they consider a good commercial.

All of the participants of the Symposium had a great time and found the program very educational. “The level of presentations was consistently clear, based on good thinking, research and interest,” said Dr. Bernard Timberg of the School of Communication at East Carolina University. “The program was well balanced,” said Dr. David R. Thompson from the Department of First-Year Programs at Kennesaw State University. “The symposium was well organized.” It featured a mixture of presentations, lectures and panel discussions on the variety of topics pertinent to advertising in modern culture.

A few of the out-of-town speakers also had a unique experience while spending the weekend in Columbia. “We stayed in the same hotel as Obama as he made history,” said Dr. Thompson. “We saw the Secret Service and the bulletproof limos and international media and campaign workers.”

Lindsay Brasington has a B.A. in English from Clemson University. She is working on her Master of Mass Communication in print journalism at the USC School of Journalism and Mass Communications.