Let's pretend play... with brands

Pretend play when you were 4 and 5 years old taught all of us a lot about real life. We watched our adults closely and spoke like them or acted like they do. Dressed liked them while making changes to our smaller self. We chose to pour the tea at the tea party with all the guests (dolls) sitting around with just the right elegance. Pretend play is a very important part of social and cognitive development in younger children. Through pretend play, children learn to negotiate, consider others’ perspectives, transfer knowledge from one situation to another, balance their own ideas with others, develop a plan and act on it, explore symbolism, express and listen to thoughts and ideas, assign tasks and roles, and synthesize different information and ideas.

In many ways, working on real clients in a learning environment of the classroom is so similar to pretend play. The brand research involves watching the brand live and breathe. Students develop their creative strategy statements in response to the real brand in the market. They do have to modify the skills or how they will dress their ideas based on their young selves or that of their peers. They work in a safe environment of the classroom where they aren’t bound by budgets. But they still work in teams sometimes with tighter timelines and stricter processes than in the “real” world. As an educator, I help student hone their observation skills so they understand and speak the language of the chosen brand. I make sure they follow processes and timelines that they will have to follow when in the real world. Sometimes these are stricter to create a strong work ethic. I make sure that all rituals of the tea party are followed to make the optimal experience. Industry professionals often gauge an educational setting based on whether or not it follows budget. While some projects give them an estimate of costs, most of the time, they are allowed to take creative liberties. At what point does a young creative advertising students transfer from pretend play to real work? How do we gauge their industry readiness? 

It’s been a pleasure working with one such group that has done a stellar job of watching the brands, emulating their voices and yet creating original ad campaigns that would suit the brand spot on. Proud of the work we do in the classroom @SCAD