Eight students from Eastern Connecticut State University recently traveled to Paris, France and London, England, as part of a “global field course” with Communication Professor Olugbenga Ayeni. The course, “International Advertising and Public Relations,” allowed students to gain an understanding of how advertising and public relations work on a global scale. “Students learn about all aspects of communicating across cultures, the intersection between communication and culture and how these impact developing advertising concepts and strategies for global products and consumers,” explained Ayeni.
The trip offered students the opportunity to visit important global advertising agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi and McCann Erickson. They attended workshops at Saatchi & Saatchi to learn some of the intricacies of a front-line advertising agency. They also enjoyed interactive and informative meetings at the Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR), an organization that regulates, certifies and oversees public relations professionals in the United Kingdom. The group also visited the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), where they staged a mock news session. “I wasn’t just sitting at a desk learning,” student Kelly Reardon said of the trip. “I actually got to experience what these people do in the jobs that we’ve been studying.”
The group also took the opportunity to visit cultural sites to observe the culture of British and French consumers. Through walking tours of London and Paris, students were able to absorb information about two of the world’s most popular cities and their citizens. They visited the British Museum, the first national public museum in the world, which gave an enriched perspective of the world on a global scale using artifacts that dated back hundreds or even thousands of years. The students visited historic landmarks such as Stonehenge and Buckingham Palace in England, and the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre in France.