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Psychology of Advertising Communication. 

Code: 102561
Credits: 6
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
Psychology OP 4

Contact lecturer

Name :
Berta Conill Purgimon
Email :
berta.conill@uab.cat

Teaching staff

Nancy Lopez Lago

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

THERE ARE NO MANDATORY PREREQUISITES FOR THIS SUBJECT

Objectives

  • Familiarize the student with the world of advertising communication.

  • Understand how advertising fits within the context of social sciences and psychology.

  • Develop critical thinking skills to assess which types of advertising contribute to a more conscious and sustainable social development.

  • Learn how an advertising campaign is planned and at which stage a psychologist can be involved.

  • Apply psychological knowledge to the creation of an advertisement or advertising campaign.

Learning outcomes

  1. Apply the corresponding explicative model of behaviour according to the situation or context.
  2. Describe and relate the different phases of cognitive processing and the communicative expression of that processing.
  3. Demonstrate that social contexts different from contexts in which communication is addressed to adapt to them.
  4. Recognise the emotional, linguistic and nonverbal factors that facilitate or impede communication.
  5. Analyse the social effects of mass communication media.
  6. Discriminate and differentiate the different levels of communication (animal versus human) and factors involved.
  7. Write reports from the results of studies on communication credibility and reliability.
  8. Design scientific studies on the characteristics of communication and its impact on the recipients.
  9. Analyse and interpret the results of experiments on communication.
  10. Use different ICTs for different purposes.
  11. Work in a team.
  12. Apply knowledge, skills and acquired values critically, reflexively and creatively.
  13. Criticise the effects of personal practice on people, taking into account the complexity of human diversity.
  14. Identify the social, economic and/or environmental implications of academic and professional activities in the area of your knowledge.
  15. Identify the principal forms of sex- or gender-based inequality and discrimination present in society.
  16. Analyse the sex- or gender-based inequalities and the gender biases present in one's own area of knowledge.
  17. Assess how stereotypes and gender roles impact professional practice.
  18. Propose projects and actions that incorporate the gender perspective.
  19. Communicate in an inclusive manner avoiding the use of sexist or discriminatory language.
  20. Identify situations in which a change or improvement is needed.
  21. Analyse a situation and identify its points for improvement.
  22. Propose new experience-based methods or alternative solutions.
  23. Weigh up the risks and opportunities of both one's own and other people's proposals for improvement.
  24. Propose new ways of measuring the viability, success or failure of the implementation of innovative proposals or ideas.
  25. Propose viable projects and actions to boost social, economic and/or environmental benefits.
  26. Analyse the sustainability indicators of the academic and professional activities in this field, integrating the social, economic and/or environmental dimensions.

Contents

BLOCK A: Advertising
Advertising as mass communication
Definition and its aim of advertising

BLOCK B: The advertising agency
Agency Departments


The role of a psychologist in the advertising agency

BLOCK C: The advertising campaign
Campaign goals: commercial and / or informational
The briefing
The communication proposal
Advertising strategy planning

BLOCK D: The advertising language
Slogan, brand and brand image
The language of the senses in Advertising communication
Fragance marketing
Gender and advertising
Advertising music

BLOCK E: The media from the perspective of advertising
Characteristics of the mass media:
- New advertising form
- Posters, billboards, press, radio, cinema, television, internet...

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Work developement 30 1.2 1, 7, 11
Tutorials 5 0.2 10
Master classes (theory) 24 0.96 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13
Practical lessons and Seminaries 12 0.48 8, 10, 11, 12, 13
Oral presentations 4 0.16 11
Teamwork 75 3 11

Master Classes: we are going to deal with theoretical contents to be able to make, in work groups, an advertising campaign that will be presented orally at the end of the semester and where a written work will be delivered.

Seminars: the practical application of these theoretical contents and scientific articles will be worked on. The student will work in a group.

Supervised Practical Classes: a specific topic will be proposed, where some aspect of psychology has a fundamental role in advertising communication.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Ev2 Campaign exhibition (oral presentation) 15 0 0 10, 11, 13, 18, 19
Ev4 Written report (seminars) 10 0 0 11, 12, 13, 19, 25
Ev5 Tutoring and participation 10 0 0 5
Ev3 Packaging Design (practical classes) 20 0 0 8, 10, 11, 12, 13
Ev1 Realization of the advertising campaign (based on the master classes) 45 0 0 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26

Feedback Type EV i TIPO WEEK
Written EV1 + EV4 20
Digital Tool EV 1 20
In the Classroom EV2 + EV3 20
Tutoring EV 5 20

Feedback on results for students is provided at the end of presentations and during class follow-ups; final grades will be published after the course lectures are over.

The evaluation, which is continuous, will be carried out by performing:

1.- Delivery of the group work of the advertising campaign aimed at highlighting the knowledge acquired from the master classes. The grade will be 40% of the overall grade. (Approximate delivery of the work in the month of May. It will be monitored how it is built during the tutoring hours).

2.- Oral presentation. Each working group must make an oral presentation and deliver the presentation in PowerPoint. The grade will represent 15% of the overall rating. (The presentations will be made at the end of May).

3.- Practices. Each group must make, on the one hand, a design of a wrapper for a product, idea or service, will work it and expose it in class. The grade will be 15% of the overall grade. (The presentations will be made at the end of May).

4.- Seminars. A specific topic will be proposed and each student will work on the development of the topic. A written report will be submitted. The grade will represent 15% of the overall grade. (It will be done in person in the classroom).

5.- Tutoring and participation. Follow-up tutorials of the advertising campaign will be carried out in work groups; the grade assigned to these tutoring sessions will be the same for all members of the work team. In parallel, debates will be generated and all contributions made by the student to the subject will be valued. All this will mean 15% of the overall rating.

The final grade of the continuous evaluation will be obtained from the weighted average of the evaluation activities carried out. Students who obtain a grade equal to or greater than 5 points will be considered to pass the subject.

In case of suspension, a resit test may be made. Students who are suspended with a grade equal to or greater than 3 and who have completed assessment activities whose weight equals to a minimum of 2/3 of the total grade of the subject may take this test. This test will consist of five semi-open questions of the contents given in the master classes. The mark of this recovery test will average the 50% with the activities presented and will form the final grade for the subject.

A student who has provided evidence of learning with a weight equal to or greater than 40% may not be listed as 'Not evaluable'.

No unique final synthesis test for students who enrole for the second time or more is anticipated.

This subject does not consider single assessment.

https://www.uab.cat/web/estudiar/graus/graus/avaluacions-1345722525858.html

Bibliography

Essential:

Añaños, Elena; Estaún, Santiago; Tena, Daniel; Mas, Maria Teresa i Valli, Anna (2009) Psicología y Comunicación Publicitaria. Bellaterra: Servei de publicacions de la UAB.

Arroyo, C., & Revilla, J. L. (2021). Psicología de la comunicación. Editorial Síntesis.

Castelló-Martínez, A. y Pino-Romero, C. (2019). De la publicidad a la comunicación persuasiva integrada: estrategia y empatía. Madrid: Esic Editorial

Complementary:

Cerezo, Manuel (2006). Taller de publicidad. Barcelona: Octaedro

Goldstein, E. Bruce (2011). Sensación y percepción. Traducción: Antonio Núñez Ramos, Lorena Peralta Rosales; revisión técnica: Magali López Lecona. México: Cengage Learning.

Alguns exemples: https://youtube.com/@publitves?si=CdJ5HJTlm9GzCi5P

Software

It will be necessary to know how to use PowerPoint (or similar) for presentations and a word processor for the written work.
Basic knowledge is required for editing an advertising campaign (Canva, video editing software, etc.).

 

Because part of the assessment is the students' creative ability, the use of artificial intelligence is not contemplated in more than:

Type of delivery

USE OF AI ALLOWED

Advertising campaign

25%

Campaign presentation

0%

Packaging

50%

Written report (seminars)

25%

Tutoring

0%

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(TE) Theory 1 Catalan second semester morning-mixed
(PAUL) Classroom practices 11 Catalan second semester morning-mixed