http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1156542610662&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Students told `Yale Shmale'
Lakehead unveils edgy PR campaign
Takes aim at Bush's Ivy League roots
Aug. 26, 2006. 09:30 AM
DANIEL GIRARD
EDUCATION REPORTER
Consider it a weapon of mass attraction.
Lakehead University is poking fun at U.S. President George W. Bush and
his Ivy League alma mater in an edgy new guerrilla marketing campaign
intended to lure students to its Thunder Bay campus.
Dubbed "Yale Shmale," the $100,000 promotion features an image of Bush —
Yale University, Class of 1968 — on posters that will be plastered on
construction sites and other outdoor locations across the Greater
Toronto Area.
"Graduating from an Ivy League university doesn't necessarily mean
you're smart," reads the second of two posters set for release,
"Choosing Lakehead does."
The posters will be supplemented by university ambassadors cruising by
teen hangouts in Smart Cars sporting the campaign logo to encourage
students to check out http://www.yaleshmale.com.
That website, which links to the one for Lakehead, makes a more detailed
pitch to consider the school.
"We believe the person you become after you graduate is even more
important than the person you were when you enrolled," it reads in
reference to Bush, whose policies have made him one of the world's most
controversial figures.
"Go to a university that cares how well you do after you leave."
The campaign, which is also giving away a Smart Car lease and four
portable PlayStation video games, is designed to grab the attention of
youngsters in a market "where the majority of people don't even know we
exist," said Fred Gilbert, president of the 7,600-student university on
the shores of Lake Superior.
It's symptomatic of the increasingly competitive recruiting for new
students being undertaken by Ontario universities and colleges.
Acknowledging that the campaign has already been panned by some older
people as well as members of Lakehead's staff and faculty, Gilbert said
critics who think it's "disparaging two institutions — Yale and the
President" — are missing the point.
"The intent was to poke a little fun, and use someone who has polarized
public opinion to the point that his image is instantly recognizable, to
draw attention to the campaign," he said in an interview.
Officials with Yale did not return phone calls.
A White House spokesperson refused comment.
Barbara Hauser, acting president of the Council of Ontario Universities,
said its 20 members are autonomous.
She added, any "decision to do advertising related to itself is its own
business."
Additional articles by Daniel Girard
/end
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Fundies and trolls are cordially invited to
shove a wooden cross up their arses and rotate
at a high rate of speed. I trust you'll
be 'blessed' with a plethora of splinters.
.
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