That PSU commercial is awful
- Thread starter RabidLion
- Start date
Look at all the discussion it generated. It’s much better than the typical nondescript college ad featuring some Co Ed who invented a new way to purify water while she tosses a frisbee on the commons.
LOL. Yea seems to be a lot of "triggered" "snowflakes" regarding this.
My biggest issue with the commercial, like @Obliviax pointed out is that none of the people shown in that commercial could even think about affording PSU right now.
That to me is by far the bigger problem, not the areas they showed.
I liked the ad. The message to me was clear. We are Penn State. We are your flagship public university and no matter who you are, no matter where you are from we are here for you. I would have loved the ad if I felt the message was true but with the tuition increases, not so much.
Evidently a lot of other people saw it another way, something like 'Come to Penn State. Our community looks like an old steel mill and run down row houses'.
Evidently a lot of other people saw it another way, something like 'Come to Penn State. Our community looks like an old steel mill and run down row houses'.
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Agreed that Is the intended message... but it’s a lie. And that is why I don’t like it.
As someone who grew up in a daily vibrant community that is now, several decades later, 1/4 of the size the message I got was ‘PA where we have successfully made the urban and suburban areas as bad as the inner cities’
The ad is just another shot in the culture wars. We all know that. People are lying when they say they don’t see it.
These “intellectuals” know so much and understand little. Thanks to them-
Ugly is now attractive.
Perversion is now normal.
Faith is now foolish.
Achievement is gifted and not earned.
For recognizing that and calling it what it is the critics of this garbage are officially sanctioned and oppressed.
These “intellectuals” know so much and understand little. Thanks to them-
Ugly is now attractive.
Perversion is now normal.
Faith is now foolish.
Achievement is gifted and not earned.
For recognizing that and calling it what it is the critics of this garbage are officially sanctioned and oppressed.
Who says "we don't see it"? I see it, I just don't think its the big deal you snowflakes do.
I'd be "lying" if I said otherwise.
What? you think your own words are a snooze fest?
Finally something we agree upon.
Agreed. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to see the complaining though as everything gets blown out of proportion here.
I mean, it’s a lousy commercial like how all these college promos are. But this didn’t seem worse than usual. Nothing in it looked like a ghetto or anything like that just some different parts of the state.
Sure, if you want a commercial that really would draw interest, you would do some nice shots of campus, some cheering at a football game and of could a bunch of hot girls in PSU garb. Maybe toss in some stats about job or grad school placement. But colleges don’t like to be that blunt.
Who are the Philly Garbage you refer to? The ones curing cancer at the Abramson Cancer Center, or did you have someone else in mind?
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
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No one on this board is the demographic for that ad. When you see an ad from Penn State asking for your money and showing old footage of the campus and Joe winning bowl games and National Championships, you’ll know it was for you. This is basically Penn State saying we’re a university for everyone in the commonwealth - and if you’ve grown up in rougher areas or might be of lower income, we are here. We see you. I mean, if it were an ad for Pennsylvania Hillbilly Elegy people would love it.
Pitt would never get caught dead running a "promo" like that. Ours looks like a commercial to join the Peace Corps and work in some third world country.
Pitt's campus is a LOT better looking , and surrounded by EXPONENTIALLY more culture, research, and arts opportunities than THAT "promo" depicted. It looked like some request for disaster relief.
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People talked about "New Coke" too. How did THAT paradigm shift work?
And I think many of us agree with you that after watching THAT "promo", a LOT of us "feel more disconnected from PSU".
I didn't think the commercial was that bad although I have no clue what it had to do with PSU. Like showing Philly and Pittsburgh and some random PA small towns is somehow relevant to PSU. there isn't any kids in PA that don't know PSU exists, don't need to advertise hard to them as they have plenty of applications already from both PA and out of state. So I thought the commercial was just a bad commercial for PSU as it wasn't relevant to selling the University to prospective students.
LMFAO. Yes. Western PA is the summit for culture and the arts. While you’re at it, take a look at Pitt’s demographics - extremely lacking of diversity, especially for the “Big City” school.
Now that the Original is closed, there is one less cultural mecca. Cheese dog or a chicken parm with O fries was a culinary work of art at 2 a.m.
Speaking for myself, and taking note of the many postings of some others who did not like the commercial. You can dislike the commercial and still be pro PSU.
That's right. The commercial, to me, says "hey, PA has been ruined, we can do that for you too." I mean, it is like having Pizza commercials showing gross, fat guys. The message is "hey, eat our hi cal pizzas and you too can be a greasy, overweight dude wearing ill-fitting football jerseys."
Yep, they realized it was a brain dead stupid idea, just like that promo of us looking like we're located in some poor, third world country is.
That 2nd video was actually pretty legit. Besides some of the pictures not being from PSU I couldn't really argue with the 4 things that were shared.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Like most things, where you stand a lot of times depends on where you sit. Your seat here is above looking down - that's the not the case for everyone, noting the 'message' of the ad is not super clear. What I see is everyone, regardless of where they live, can aspire to do better. It's not like Pennsylvania or the US as a whole was ever an unvarnished display of cleanliness and success - this shines a light on other parts that exist in every state in this country; not just Pennsylvania.
That is where I came from Midnighter...and I haven't lost touch. I grew up on. a small farm where we had, at one point, nine people living in a one-bathroom home. Each child had a crop to take care of. I had tomatoes and had 900 plants at peak performance. I recall going to school with ripped up sneakers and green tomatoes stains on my hands, not to mention the splinters in my hands from tomato stakes. I also recall long nights castrating hogs. One of my best remembrances is fighting with a hog in the back of a pickup truck while driving through my small downtown locations. The looks on people's faces while I smacked a hog in the face to keep him from jumping out of the truck were priceless. We can talk about cars not working, rube goldberg-ing power equipment, 95 degree nights with no AC, and so forth.
My point is, this is the hardscrabble area that I came from. Sadly, as a state, PA is simply not keeping up. I travel nationwide and I don't see a single state that has deteriorated like PA. There are nice places but a trip up the Ohio valley, mon valley, north-central PA, Allentown, Bethlehem, new castle, Sharon, Aliquippa, make me literally weep.
So forgive me, when I see that commercial, what is says to me is "sorry folks, even in its heyday with unlimited funding, we failed you." Now that I can get my education from any university in the world, that isn't the place I want to go to. I escaped from that hell hole and Penn State isn't giving me a warm feeling that they can help anyone escape from that.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
How did Penn State fail Pennsylvania? I agree there are parts of PA that are sad and deteriorated (and I grew up in Beaver County - where towns have either Native American names, or are named for their function - Economy, Ambridge, Freedom, Shippingport, Industry, Ohioview, Raccoon, Midland, etc.). But, it's not Penn State's fault and I don't think that is the intent of the commercial (which I agree is muddled). We have two takes; I'm sure there are many others.
Bethlehem is very nice these days, and really a model for what a small city should do in the face of industrial decline. Allentown is pretty bad, but building in the downtown area has been booming.
I’ve witnessed much of the country that is worse than PA. Specifically the industrial cities of upstate NY and rural Appalachia where coal is all but finished.
Again, it is a commercial which theoretically should be trying to get prospective high school students (and just as important their parents) to apply and want to goto PSU.
How does that commercial do that? Unless PSU was just going pure woke, let's make a social statement type of commercial because we can, which I could easily see being what they did, how is this commercial appealing to prospective high school students and their parents. My point is, it really doesn't.
How does that commercial do that? Unless PSU was just going pure woke, let's make a social statement type of commercial because we can, which I could easily see being what they did, how is this commercial appealing to prospective high school students and their parents. My point is, it really doesn't.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
I think this criticism is legit; what exactly does the commercial say, or want to say? One take is that if you're a kid in Philly or Pittsburgh (or Midland, or Aliquippa) and you're watching the game with your family you maybe recognize the places in the ad and think - hey, I know that place. I live that. Which I think is fine; where Penn State misses the mark is drawing a connection from those places to Penn State - it's too nebulous. How does it make sense? They're not showing the timeline or trajectory of a student from a tough area, to Penn State, and then on to success. They just show these places, and play the alma mater. As to the wokeness/social statement of the commercial, please explain....poor places are woke?
if you are watching a PSU football game, then 100% you know who PSU is and don't need a shot of your hometown. I mean at one point I think it was like 80% of people in PA had a 'relation' to somebody at Penn State being a true mother, sister, father, uncle, cousin or just a neighbor, friend, etc...so there aren't any kids in PA that don't know who PSU is.
Looking at that commercial, they don't show the 'good' aspect of PA. Not like they are showing hometown parades or chamber of commerce shots of Philly and PIttsburgh. They are trying to show more of the other side of the tracks places.
I feel like Penn State lost its identity. It started as a state-chartered school aimed at giving people access to education that couldn't before. Then, it became a world-class university with a top 50 learning environment. I feel like PSU, today, is neither of those. Academically, it has fallen. At the same time, the cost to go to school has climbed.
Penn State. Ranked #63 by usnews
- The 2020 undergraduate tuition & fees of Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus (Penn State) are $18,450 for Pennsylvania residents and $35,514 for out of State students. The 2020 graduate school tuition & fees are $22,994 for Pennsylvania residents and $38,728 for others.
Ohio State, Ranked # 53 by USNews
- For academic year 2019-2020, the undergraduate tuition & fees at Ohio State University-Main Campus is $11,084 for Ohio residents and $32,061 for out-of-state students. The undergraduate 2020-2021 estimated tuition & fees for OSU is $11,454 for Ohio residents and $33,437 for out-of-state students.
IMO, it isn't so much the blue collar images ( you would have to be a Smurf to have a more blue collar upbringing than I had. Quite a few years living in the coal region, also the Poconos, and Oakland) , but when you couple it with the editing, and the funeral version of the Alma Mater it seems depressing to me.
IDK any kid is picking his college choice off a commercial. But if the commercial is motivating, he/she might hit the multi-media venues to further research their choices.
IDK any kid is picking his college choice off a commercial. But if the commercial is motivating, he/she might hit the multi-media venues to further research their choices.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Totally true but the commercial doesn’t mention any of that - you know this because you’ve researched it. Not much more to add - I’ll say it missed the mark in terms of messaging but otherwise I’m okay with it; if you’re going to spend money for an ad, make sure your message is clear.
Agreed. There is a purpose to spending time and money on an ad. It is to create a brand. I think that commercial is off brand. If their message is to say "you can improve your lot in life, no matter color/sex/age/pronoun..." there was a better way, IMHO.
By the way, the best film clip I've ever seen regarding ads, below.....Kodak invents the picture wheel and mad men shows them how to create a brand.
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anon_xdc8rmuek44eq
Guest
Great, now I want to meet Roger Sterling in his office so we can have a couple of drinks and a bogus meeting with Joan.
