UW in the Classroom

Week 14 and Week 16 – Campaign Me   

      The word Archetype means “a pattern or model of representation.”  To this point, we have used branding, marketing, and advertising to persuade and move decisions.  Now, we want to take those same principles and turn them into flesh.

      We will turn our eyes to politics — not for the sake of debate or political agendas, but to show the parallels between marketing, media, and mass influence.  In this unit, we will create a candidate, do market research, make a strategy and see if he sells.  Then we will make him human, looking at him, his interests, and his the things that set him apart.

     Moving someone outside of themselves into a market group benefits the buyer and the seller, but it also gives him/her a sense of their own needs and longings.  But what happens if we personalize, moving from We to I?  

     These last few weeks, we will look at our Straw Man Persona to make him more complete.  In doing so, we will investigate the things that make us human, and, hopefully, distance ourselves from becoming the archetype for someone else’s intentions.

Week 17 and Week 18 – Humanize Me

      As we finish up the semester, you should have a clear insight into how people can be persuaded, and the role media, advertising, and commercialism play in our lives.  You will have a better understanding of human aspiration and longing, and what it means to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

     You will move from marketing, branding, and selling into personal reflection and artistic creativity.  You will encounter philosophy, literature, poetry, and art.  You will be asked the big question: “Why do humans create?” and what does that say about the Human Condition?

                            Thomas Teaching Evaluation, II