Today’s brands are constantly evolving and seeking new ways to connect with socially conscious audiences. Join the creatives and strategists who are guiding influential brands toward authenticity, courage, and a commitment to social good.
Advertising at the SOJC
Advertising is no longer just about selling products. With our innovative Creative Strategist model as your guide, you’ll learn how to follow your curiosity, solve problems creatively, cultivate strategy, and deliver campaigns that move people to action. You’ll build core skills in design thinking, media planning, and brand management—and the portfolio to prove it. You’ll meet advertising’s top minds through agency networking trips and class visits from industry leaders. And you’ll join a creative community that will challenge and support you every step of the way.
What You Can Do with an Advertising Degree
Our graduates forge career paths across the creative and media economy and land jobs at leading global agencies, client brands, and nonprofit organizations. They are account managers, copywriters, designers, media analysts, brand strategists, and others who use their creativity in hybrid ways:
- An art director/designer might land a job for Charity:Water in New York or 72andSunny in Los Angeles.
- A conceptual writer might write scripts for Blizzard Entertainment or craft advertising copy for Nike, Adidas, or Patagonia.
- Producers go on to lead projects for Hollywood filmmakers, ESPN, and sports teams around the country.
- Our strategists get placed in landmark agencies around the nation—like Wieden + Kennedy, WONGDOODY, and Johannes Leonardo—where they develop ideas for environmental projects, new business pitches, and modern brands.
Check out what three of our graduates are up to now:
Our program is based on brand responsibility, rock-star creativity, and brave thinking for a changing world. Our students:
- Campaign for real clients in the student-run Allen Hall Advertising agency, Ad Society, and the National Student Advertising Competition.
- Network and learn at top agencies in Portland, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.
- Travel around the globe, from our annual Creative Week trip to New York City to Science & Memory projects in Alaska, Oregon, and Ghana.
- Work with the United Nations to solve global problems.
- Attend innovative events like SXSW or Cannes Festival of Creativity in France.
Advertising, Tevin Tavares '17 believes, isn’t just about selling things. It can also inspire. Make waves. Bring people to tears.
The filmmaker and the SOJC student/alumni group he founded, Combined Culture, have been making waves of their own with powerful short films that have gone viral, propelling them into positions with major brands like Nike and Adidas and winning a College Emmy. From their eye-opening take on sneaker culture, to a short film inspired by Pulitzer Prize–winning hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, to the story of a school shooting told through the eyes of a survivor, Tevin and Combined Culture use their creativity to elevate and inspire.
Create Campaigns for Real-World Clients
Problem:
The UO women’s basketball team is the top-ranked team in the PAC-12, but its games weren’t drawing the crowds you’d expect.
Solution:
With support from SOJC alum and Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, the team hired Allen Hall Advertising, the student-run ad agency.
Results:
In less than two months, AHA's student-created "Wonder Ducks" campaign increased year-over-year attendance at games by more than 71 percent.
Inspired by their backgrounds in Girl Scouts and Campfire Girls, advertising students Rachel Benner '18 and Hannah Lewman '18 developed the Change Rangers, a new type of Scouting that teaches young people valuable skills for our changing climate, like water management and sustainable gardening. The campaign was one of 13 projects—out of 384 entries from 70 countries—to win the international What Design Can Do Climate Action Challenge. As winners, they earned two trips to Amsterdam to further develop their idea with expert guidance.
Troy Elias wants to help journalists, brands, and organizations talk to communities of color about climate change. He’s collaborating with other SOJC faculty to examine how different ethnic groups react to—and act on—climate change messaging. The study is supported by the SOJC’s Center for Science Communication Research (SCR), whose mission is to help communicators improve public understanding of scientific discoveries.
When Chelsea Coleman traveled to New York City for the first time during the SOJC’s annual New York Experience networking trip, she fell in love. She moved there immediately after graduation and now leads an advertising team at Annex88—all because the SOJC taught her to dream big and gave her the skills to succeed.