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Create a brand campaign in this three-week marketing course for elementary and middle school students on Cornell University’s campus.
Course Description
A logo catches the eye; a message makes a brand memorable. Create both, then try responding when a fictional company gets something wrong.
In this course your student will explore how marketing, advertising, and public relations work together. Familiar brands and commercials make the choices visible. They’ll explore product, price, promotion, and where a product is sold, analyze logos, and invent a product with its own name and visual identity.
Advertising exercises explore attention, persuasion, slogans, and storytelling. After critiquing existing ads, teams will create a poster, video script, or jingle for their own campaign. A fictional company mistake brings public relations into the picture: students will write a press release or social post and decide how to address the audience without losing trust.
The final campaign presentation connects the product, logo, ad, and PR plan. Your student will explain why those choices belong together and what they are meant to communicate.
This three-week Summer Discovery course for elementary and middle school students takes place on Cornell University’s campus in Ithaca, New York. Beyond class, students connect academic exploration with campus life, new friendships, growing independence, and curiosity they can keep exploring.
What Will You Do?
• Examine a familiar product’s price, promotion, and where it is sold
• Analyze logos, slogans, brand identity, and advertising techniques
• Invent a product and define its name, audience, and visual direction
• Create a story-based ad as a poster, video script, or jingle
• Respond to a fictional brand problem with a PR message
• Present a campaign connecting product, advertising, and PR
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
• Explain the different purposes of marketing, advertising, and public relations
• Connect a product’s audience with choices about branding and persuasion
• Explain how a campaign’s messages work together to build trust
You’ll leave with your group’s original brand campaign.
Why Marketing Skills Matter
A campaign asks students to connect an idea with the people it is meant to reach. Choosing a product name, designing a logo, and explaining an advertising message make them consider how another person might interpret their work. A creative choice needs a reason behind it.
Public relations introduces a different responsibility: a company’s response to a problem can affect trust. Students practice choosing words carefully, considering an audience, and explaining decisions with classmates. These habits are useful for writing, visual communication, group projects, and evaluating the messages that compete for their attention.
Who Should Attend?
For students who have completed 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th grade.
If you notice a clever ad, enjoy inventing products, or wonder why a brand gets your attention, this course gives you a way to investigate. Writing, design, business ideas, and presenting all contribute to the group campaign. You’ll create with classmates, discuss different approaches, and explain the choices behind the work. Bring curiosity about how messages work and a willingness to revise an idea after feedback. The course makes room for several ways to contribute to a creative team.
Marketing in Action
A brand needs more than a recognizable logo. A marketing team considers the product and its audience, an advertising team develops messages that attract attention, and public-relations work helps an organization explain its actions. Those responsibilities overlap, but each raises a different question about communication.
Students try that relationship through an original group campaign. The same questions can help them examine a favorite brand, create a message for a school project, or notice the techniques in an ad. Comparing the purpose of a message with the way it is presented offers a useful starting point for further exploration.
After successfully finishing this course, you will be awarded a certification completion for your accomplishment.
*This is a preview, not what you will receive