What's Advertising and Imagery all about?

So being the only person in this course who probably isn't a Mass Comm major, I'm probably the least adept when it comes to all things communications related. But when I read about this class I had to take it despite me already being a year behind in my studies. I've always loved looking at advertisements in magazines. I've always wondered how the designer knew exactly what was appealing to it's audiences. So that's one major thing I wanted to learn about in this class; how designers appeal to their particular audiences. I also want to learn about the history of Advertising and how it became such a prominent part of our culture. But most importantly, i'd like to learn to create quality advertisements.