From Drake University’s undergraduate-admissions home page |
The problem: High-school students are so bombarded with bland college-marketing brochures that they can barely distinguish one institution from another.
The solution: Slap a big “D+" logo on the front of your undergraduate-recruitment brochure, tell people you’re being “edgy,” and then sit back and wait for the applications to roll in.
That’s what marketing officials at Drake University did as part of a new campaign called “The Drake Advantage.” The text of the undergraduate-admissions page reads: “When we talk about D+, that’s what we mean. Every moment at Drake is one that has to the power to educate, to transform, to open minds and to unleash potential — to introduce who you are, to who you hope to become.”
Reading this, we’re led to believe that either some prankster hacked Drake’s Web site, or someone in Iowa accidentally ingested some rye ergot.
But despite being lampooned in the advertising world, Drake officials are actually defending the campaign, which was done in conjunction with Stamats Communications, “a firm specializing in higher education communications.”
The education blog of the Des Moines Register reports that Tom Delahunt, vice president for admission and student financial planning, and Debra Lukehart, executive marketing director, responded to faculty and alumni criticism via an e-mail message. Conceding that faculty and staff members should have been allowed to preview the campaign before its release, the letter nonetheless explains that the concept was rigorously tested on 921 mostly Midwestern high-school students.
In an online survey, “more than three-quarters of the respondents indicated the cover grabbed their attention either a little or a lot,” the letter says. “In addition, nearly 90 percent of the respondents felt the concept was unique from other college and university materials they have seen.”
The letter further states that “D+ was not designed to stand alone or represent a grade,” but was instead intended “to be paired with prose and draw attention to the distinctive advantages of the Drake experience.”
Criticism notwithstanding, Drake seems to be sticking to its story. The letter concludes:
“Members of the Office of Admission and the Office of Marketing and Communication will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the Drake Advantage campaign throughout the admission cycle.” —Don Troop
