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Despite the lack of consensus in existing literature regarding the societal functions of advertising, brands have been increasingly incorporating aspects of their stance on key social issues and/or contributions to societal wellbeing, into advertising messages. However, notable failures of contemporary societal advertising campaigns indicate that their effectiveness in achieving marketing objectives and advancing social causes remains ambiguous. To appraise the commercial and social consequences of societal advertising, the present research proceeds to examine its interrelationship with the social value system and conceptual differences with similar concepts. Although advertising is able to reflect and also reinforce a subset of existing social values, effective contribution to positive social change is likely to necessitate synergies between elements of the entire marketing process. Overall, given its risks and limitations, there is not sufficient evidence to posit that the practice of societal advertising is always for the best interest of business and society.

PurposeBy focusing on a Greek traditional learning university, during and post Covid-19 restrictions, the study aims at examining the concurrent effects of teaching and assessment format on students' academic performance. The inclusion of case studies in course assessment post Covid-19 restrictions is also expected to give a rough insight into students' employability skills and workplace readiness.Design/methodology/approachThe academic performance of 489 undergraduate students, as determined by the grades they earned, was measured in the final exams of business-to-business marketing and integrated marketing communication courses, held in January 2021 and 2022 at a Greek public university. The primary predictor variable or interest was “teaching and assessment format”, and took two values: (1) online teaching with multiple-choice assessment format (during Covid-19 restrictions) and (2) traditional classroom teaching with in-person case study and open-ended assessment format (post Covid-19 restrictions).FindingsGrades were found to be affected by the participants' year of study, the type of marketing course, in which they were examined, and the teaching and assessment format employed. Either in whole or by gender, students appear to perform significantly worse in the traditional teaching with in-person case study and open-ended questions assessment format.Practical implicationsGood pedagogical practice in the use of digital technology is advised to incorporate diverse teaching tools and assessment methods.Originality/valueExamination of the concurrent effects of teaching and assessment on academic performance unveils significant variation in students' academic performance under different formats, which may be attributable to multiple reasons.

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