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."
