Why I Chose Advertising

As I grow deeper into my career and think about starting others, I think about the reason I chose to study Advertising. I think about people who have had wonderful influence in the world, and most seem to have business degrees, law degrees, or medical degrees. This makes me think about my BA a little questioningly.

Advertising -- the science of convincing a large group of people to do something. It comes from the Latin word advertere which means to "turn toward."

There are two truths that have become apparent to me in the last couple years:

1. The number of people on this earth is very large -- I'm tempted to say the number of people on this earth is beyond my comprehension. Really. To think of the entire population huddled in a large crowd is a vision I have a hard time picturing. I'm not sure how much space that would take up. The world is very large and in comparison, I am a very small player. Communities are created to give people a sense of influence because to have influence on the entire world is really, really rare. There are several people that influence specific groups for the better but to really "save the world" is very difficult to do.

But it doesn't mean we shouldn't try. To understand people and how to speak to them heightens a person's influence.

2. The rate of change in the world is growing exponentially -- This mostly refers to technology, but also includes theology, biology, social customs. I believe the rise of new technology causes the three previous items to evolve and change. Things are changing quickly. New things are being developed and studied and discovered all the time. Perhaps this has something to do with the high number of people on the earth. The point is change is happening.

So, advertising. Turning people toward something. While I may not work in the currently money-driven industry forever I am happy to have it as my base. Why? Because in a world with massive amounts of people and massive amounts of change, the study of advertising trains me to see things in a different way and communicate that vision.

Someday I hope to master that skill.