Students on Saint Louis University’s campus are surrounded by advertisements. Whether they are for campus events or aimed at college students nationwide, these advertisements have a few things in common that make them successful: They feature beautiful celebrities, and offer a chance to win fabulous prizes or free merchandise.
A few weeks ago, I was selling raffle tickets in the quad when a young businessman approached me and asked if I would fill out a survey. He had been chasing down students for a good part of the time I had been sitting at the table and was having considerably more success than I was. The reason was because he offered the prospect of winning $100, no ticket purchase necessary.
I gladly accepted, without realizing that it was a viable possibility that the same $100 jackpot may have been offered to every student in the tri-state area in my situation. I eagerly filled out my contact info, full name and major–all very personal information that the “marketing firm” could turn around and sell to a telemarketer–without hesitation, all the while, dreaming of what I would buy if I won the prize money.
Of course, there are some advertising strategies that students just won’t stand for anymore: internet pop-ups, the guy who stands in front of the bookstore yelling about the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and those cellular phone commercials with Teri Hatcher acting like a looney bin escapee all fall into this category. Usually, the use of a celebrity in a commercial is enough to catch any college student’s attention, but there are some exceptions. As for cellular phone service, I would venture to guess that ads featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones are much more popular.
There are some celebrities like Carrot Top who have had their 15 minutes of collect-call promotion and would do better to spend the time working on an improved comedy routine. However cocky and off-center his antics may be, he’s no match for the unknown young businessman who boosts his performance around the office and in the gym and popularity with the opposite sex by using Centrum Performance. The ad didn’t incite me to spend the $36 vitamin supplement, but I do own a bottle of the Sam’s Club generic version of it.
Of course, there are some advertisements aimed at college-age students that appeal to one sex more than the other.
One of these is the Aids Bracelet that has become so popular with women in their teens and early 20s, spurred on by photographs in fashion magazines of movie stars donning the silver band.
No doubt the new Maxim haircolor ads do the same for men; is there any guy who doesn’t want to be attacked by a mob of curvy blondes dying to run their fingers through his hair while tearing off their clothing?
Another successful form of advertisement on campus isn’t done by marketing firms or large corporations with flashy signs. Often, it is done by the clothing that we wear. Companies like KMOX donate a lot of money to have the station’s name printed on the back of more than 2,000 Make a Difference Day T-shirts, and throughout last week hundreds of students got free T-shirts after filling out a survey on the corner of Grand.
Some forms of campus advertising are less effective than others. I got through the entire first year of college having seen the name “Core Project” plastered like wallpaper all over campus, without having any idea what it was. Does anyone really know what is meant by “Paddy’s coming?” Students don’t have the time to research advertisements, and Web addresses aren’t enough to inspire us to run home to our dorm rooms and check out a Web site unless we know what it is we are looking for. Instead of inspiring curiosity, this type of ad is just plain annoying. The truth is, like the route from St. Louis to Kansas City, sometimes our campus seems overrun with advertisements.
While all of the ads appeal to college-age students, some are more successful than others. From bedsheets hung on fences to free merchandise, we are confronted daily with decisions about what to do with our time or money.
So long as students are careful about what it is we decide to do, we might as well continue filling out surveys–that is, unless you mind telemarketers or having an extra $100 in your pocket.
Annie Mulligan is a sophomore studying communication.
