Culture and Media Studies

University of New Brunswick

MAAC 3101 - MEDIA DESIGN I

Department of Culture and Media Studies Section FR01A

Inversion Advertisements (25%)

Overview
In groups of two or three students will select a brand/company that has existed for over
100 years and create a holiday campaign for November/December 2025. This campaign
will consist of one 8.5” x 11” magazine ad or poster, and three full social media posts
(visual and caption).

Some examples of companies that are 100 years old include Oreo, Crayola, Nintendo,
Boeing, Moosehead Breweries, Irving Oil, Coca Cola, Pepsi, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes,
Colgate, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, Ford, Chanel, Gibson, etc. (Brand selection will
take place in class on Thursday, October 16). One brand per pair; no duplicates.

You will learn the history of the company and explore its visual evolution by looking at
the logo, mascots, advertisements, etc. and study the brand’s visual elements across its
history. Pairs will explore and compare and contrast how the brand’s visual identity
evolved and what it says about the company before devising a summer campaign for the
brand.

Part 1: Choosing a Brand

On Thursday, October 16, 2025 you will select and choose a 100-year old company to
research. Please post the selected brand on D2L in “Discussion Board → Inversion
Advertisements Selection”. One brand per pair.

Those not present on October 16th will be assigned a partner by the instructor but will be
able to pick their own brand.

Part 2: Check-in
During class on Thursday, November 6, 2025, I will be checking in with each team for
6-7 minutes to see how they are doing. Come to class with work prepared. All team
members are expected to be present to receive full marks. (If you want me to vet any
ideas you are also welcome to reach out earlier as well.)

Part 3: Media Items

You have been hired by the company to create a campaign and accompanying media
items for your brand’s new holiday campaign for November/December 2025. Your team
must create:
1. An 8.5 inch x 11 inch ad that could appear in a magazine or as poster.
2. Three social media posts. Each post must have visual (picture/video) AND a
caption as it would appear on one of the brand’s existing social media channels.

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© Olivia Parker, 2025
 Culture and Media Studies
University of New Brunswick

(You should submit full mock-ups and specify which platform each post would
appear on). (Make sure the social media platforms used match the organization).
a. Your visuals should not just be pulled or reused from the brand’s website
and social media. You should be creating your own original media or
doing significant editing of existing brand assets.
b. Pay attention to what the brand already posts. Will your posts fit?
c. There are social media post generators you can use for authenticity:
Canva, [Link]
[Link] [Link] etc.

Requirements:
• Create a mood board and document your design process through thumbnails,
research/inspiration, sketches, and versions; you are to submit these as part of
your assignment. (You will submit this research and process work in an appendix
or separate document).
• You can use whatever software you prefer to make your media items: Canva,
Photoshop, Illustrator, Word, PowerPoint, etc. I just need to have final copies of
your files submitted for assessment.
• Each piece must contain the organization’s logo.
• The pieces should be thematically cohesive indicating a connected campaign.
Repetition of slogans, colours, visuals, etc. all help create a cohesive design.
o Theming should be clear and consideration demonstrated in image, text,
and visual choices reflecting the research conducted.
• Any images or illustrations should ideally be public domain, or created by
students; but you may ask for permission to use product shots from the website if
that is the only way to acquire them.
• There should be text incorporated into each media sample (examples: slogan, title,
information copy, etc.).
• A slogan should be part of each media piece (these can be corporate slogans,
campaign slogans, or something new).
• In the report: provide mockups for each social media post including: visual
(specify type of post: reel, video, image, etc.), caption, and stating the platform
the post would appear on.

Make sure the pieces you design and submit follow the principles discussed in class and
be prepared to support/explain your design decisions using the knowledge you have
accumulated throughout the course and your brand research. There should be clear
thought and time spent behind the pieces.

Part 4: Report
Students will learn the history of the brand and analyze their visual media to understand
their brand identity and audience. I also recommend looking at existing marketing trends
to identify opportunities.

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© Olivia Parker, 2025
 Culture and Media Studies
University of New Brunswick

You have been hired to create a new holiday marketing campaign for November/
December 2025. Your campaign can be “Christmas” themed but you must be able to
justify why. Many brands choose to be non-denominational. When developing this new
campaign consider your audience very carefully as you create your media pieces and
describe them. Consider looking at previous holiday campaigns, and competitor holiday
campaigns to identify who the brand should target. Will you disrupt their current style
or stay the course?

Requirements:
Pairs will address the following in their report:
- The name and a brief history of the company.
- The audience/market for the company; who are their clients and how does that
impact their design strategy.
- Briefly describe your holiday campaign.
o If your campaign is “Christmas” themed versus non-denominational you
must justify why this is.
o Who is the audience for the campaign who are you targeting/reaching with
the advertising? Provide demographic and psychographic details.
- Media Sample Breakdown
o Part I: Breakdown each media sample by identifying the choices made
for each visible element using terms from class (logo, background,
colours, visuals, symbols/symbolism, word choice, composition,
hierarchy, etc.).
▪ Use what you learned from your deep dive into the organization’s
visual history to explain your inspiration.
▪ Apply visual communication terms and language to your analysis
and use research to explain your choices.
▪ Include secondary research into trends and theories to justify
choices.
o Part II: Provide an overview of the purpose and intention behind each
media sample as part of your campaign. Using visual communication
language explain each sample’s communicative effectiveness, messaging,
and storytelling.
▪ Explain how the media items holistically fit into the brand’s
identity and your holiday campaign by using your research into
their past media.
▪ What does the piece add to the overall story/message you are
telling.
- Identify and describe three things you learnt during this project.
o What is something new you discovered or learned through this exercise?
o How challenging did you find this assignment? Why?
o How will you apply this learning to future projects in this course or
beyond?

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© Olivia Parker, 2025
 Culture and Media Studies
University of New Brunswick

The report should be about 8-12 pages, excluding cover page, table of contents,
bibliography, and/or appendices. (double-spaced, typed, 12-point font). The report should
be written in third person. Exceeding the page limit will be accepted within reason. For
this assignment you may wish to add images to illustrate key points, some of these
elements may be placed in the appendices which are not counted towards the final page
count. Please create a cover page with each team members’ name and student
number.

A reference list must be provided at the end of your document. Please use APA 7th
edition for all references and citations. Please use proper in-text citations to attribute
ownership of ideas. You are expected to cite a minimum of ten sources. These sources
should be research based, not references to images. Sources can include references for
defining terms, brand research, market research, research about creating effective design,
specific sources of inspiration, etc. Marks will be deducted for missing citations and
references.

Part 5: Presentation
Pairs will present the (1) brand’s history, (2) their campaign and audience, and (3) discuss
each of their media samples explaining the choices made using the language from class
and their research. This is an opportunity to celebrate your media pieces and explain why
they are a good fit for the brand and the proposed campaign. The presentation should be
an engaging, high-level overview of your report.

Pairs will be scheduled to present on December 2 and December 4. Presentations will be

approximately 10 minutes with 2-3 minutes for questions at the end. Presentations
will be timed and marks will be deducted for short or long presentations. You must
include a reference slide/document at the end of your presentation.

Have one team member submit to D2L on Friday, November 28, 2025 at 11:59 PM:
1. A digital copy of your report
2. Submit final files for each media sample, for example, PDFs or links.
3. A copy of your presentation slides

Please title your final assignment “Brand_LastName_LastName”.

This assignment will be graded as a pair.

Evaluation Criteria
Part 1 (Feb 20): Students submitted a complete discussion post on time (out of 5)
Part 2 (March 13): Students were present, prepared, and on task (out of 5)
Part 3: Media Items
Creative Process: Creative process has been documented showing clear process work
and evolution of ideas via thumbnails and mood board (out of 5)

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© Olivia Parker, 2025
 Culture and Media Studies
University of New Brunswick

Media/Visual Creativity (out of 5): Each created piece demonstrates the visual design
concepts learned in class. Each piece has been carefully created with the brand and
visual communication concepts in mind.
Significance & Effort (out of 5): Pieces presented demonstrate effort and care. Given
the scope of the project the pieces show significant effort.
Part 4: Report
Research (out of 10): Report is well researched and takes into account both the course
readings and also outside primary and/or secondary. The company and its brand
strategy has been analyzed with care.
Report Components
The report provides careful analysis with thought out justifications explaining the
design choices made when creating the media samples. The report demonstrates
understanding of course content and its application.
Company history (out of 3)
Audience identification (out of 2)
Campaign explanation (out of 5)
Poster - Media Sample Breakdown
Visual breakdown and analysis of the poster explaining design choices and
how they relate to your research, concepts learned in class, and company’s
visual identity (out of 10)
Explain the story the poster is trying to tell and its effectiveness in delivering
the story while fitting the brand identity and campaign (out of 5)
Social Media Posts - Media Sample Breakdown
Visual breakdown and analysis of the posts explaining design choices and
how they relate to your research, concepts learned in class, and company’s
visual identity (out of 10)
Explain the story the posts are trying to tell and their effectiveness in delivering
the story while fitting the brand identity and campaign. (out of 5)
Reflect on learnings from assignment (out of 5)
Professionalism & Document (out of 5): Document is perfect, with no grammatical
errors, spelling errors or typos. All data is appropriately referenced and cited.
Part 5: Presentation
Professionalism (out of 3): Presentation is perfect and well-rehearsed, with no
grammatical errors, spelling errors or typos. Each team member demonstrates a high
level of professionalism and has contributed to the presentation.
Research (out of 4): Presentation is well researched. Documenting observations of
brand, terms from class, and campaign inspiration with sources.
Content (out of 5): An overview has been provided on all topics required for the
assignment. Analysis of the media samples have been presented and explained.
Presentation Flair (out of 3): Presentation is multimodal and showcases brand and
campaign in unique way which engages audience.
Total (out of 100)

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© Olivia Parker, 2025