ABSTRACT
In most advertising agencies, the term creative is used to describe the function whereby the actual advertising campaigns and specific advertisements are thought up and developed. Sometimes the term creative applies only to the copywriter and art director teams that work on an account; other times, it may involve production or digital development as well. Even though we are talking about the creative implications for the media portion of the advertising campaign, don't think that creative work occurs only when dealing with those who produce the message. Creative elements are vital to media selection and planning, in research, and in other phases of the advertising effort, too; creativity is not limited just to those who develop and produce the actual advertisements. Perhaps a better term would be message functions, like media functions, research functions, production functions, and management functions.
In this chapter, we use the terms creative and message interchangeably to reflect their use in the advertising industry, while recognizing that there can still be creativity in other advertising functions.
