CUMU Conference 2019

CommUniverCity is a unique partnership between San Jose State University, the City of San Jose and the Community within a two mile radius of campus in Downtown San Jose. The advertising program at SJSU has collaborated with CommUniverCity since 2013 and this latest one arose from an identified need by San Jose City Council’s Human Resources department. Their need was to attract upcoming and recent graduates who would otherwise be drawn to careers in the tech industries to careers in civic service. The advertising task was to produce an advertising campaign raising awareness about the possibilities of a civic service career.

Designing a curriculum that prepares students for careers in the advertising industry yet enables them to retain an ethically balanced world view is a challenging task. Required skills need to be embedded within an overarching active learning framework that enables students to develop their advertising craft skills. They need to gain hands-on experience of brand communications and also understand that their skills enable them to also promote a not-for-profit agenda. Advertising students developing their craft through active learning scenarios with community based groups, environmental organizations or NGOs can change cultural behavior.

To achieve a positive outcome students, as part of the research and production stages of the campaign process, engaged with the community and existing employees, they produced campaigns that presented the emotional benefits of working for the City through a series of executions that were adopted by and went on to win advertising awards as well.