EQ: What makes a successful advertisement? 

SQ: What influence does advertising have on our culture? How does our culture influence advertising? 

So far in my Senior Project journey, I have taken my pre-existing knowledge towards advertising to a deeper level. I have found that actually waking up and doing my project has not been a struggle, as I am motivated by my topic. Although, the way in which I am structuring my project has been, at times, a little bit of a struggle. I have noticed that one thing that seems to be holding me back is the way in which I am approaching documenting my learning. I came into this project with the idea that I could write a full research paper on my topic. However, I have slowly realized that this might not be the best medium to work with. From what I know, a research paper requires strict and rather scientific thinking, thinking which is less demanded from my psychologically rooted essential question. I believe that instead, my project might benefit from a looser and more creative approach. I hope to allow myself more room to document my own opinions, without worrying if they will fit the structure of a research paper. Possibly I jumped too soon to want to write the paper without realizing that I need more time and space to gather my thoughts. 

My essential question is not a yes or no question. Its focus on the definition of success makes it a multi-faceted question in which everyone, from the people I interview to myself, will have a different answer. I feel as though the structure of a research paper has pressured me into feeling like I need to have a concrete answer right now. Truth is, there is still so much learning to be done with my topic and I need to not hold extremely high expectations for the end result. From now on, I am going to worry less about the outcome more on reflecting the day to day knowledge that I am gaining. I am really excited about the interviews I am doing in the next coming weeks and finding a way to creatively share them with an audience.