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Our students in the news
WSU pair make it big Super Bowl dreaming
WSU pair make it big Super Bowl dreaming
BY JORDAN MUHLESTEIN
Standard-Examiner staff jmuhlestein@standard.net
Standard-Examiner staff jmuhlestein@standard.net
OGDEN — The work of two Weber State University public relations students appeared on national television Wednesday morning as part of a Super Bowl commercial contest sponsored by Chevrolet.
The commercial, written and produced by students Michael Eddy, 27, a senior from Layton, and Michael Jordan, 25, a senior from Colorado Springs, Colo., was featured on CBS’ “The Early Show” along with two other student-created commercials featuring Chevrolet vehicles.
The Weber State commercial shows a football player being knocked out on the field and day-dreaming about a trip to the beach with his friends in a new Chevy.
While not one of the five finalists — one of which will have their concept produced to run during the Super Bowl — the Weber State student’s commercial was picked by Chevrolet as one of the most humorous. More than 800 student teams registered for the contest, representing 230 schools in 46 states and the District of Columbia.
Eddy said the pair began working on the project in early October, taking about three weeks to come up with the plot.
“We spent hours and hours,” he said. “Thinking of ideas, writing ideas down, brainstorming, using every technique we’d been taught.”
The pair used several research methods they had learned in class and also focused on such concepts as what consumers look for in a vehicle and what could grab the attention of the audience.
Eddy said the project took a lot of time, but was also an enjoyable learning experience.
“The fact that it went on TV makes it all worth it,” he said. “I’m still kind of in shock.”
The goal was to make the 30-second spot funny and imaginative, Eddy said, while highlighting the Chevrolet vehicle.
The pair, who are not football players, even convinced several members of the university’s football team to act in the video.
“They loved it,” Eddy said, “especially when I had to take them all out to breakfast — that cost me $100.”
He said the contest helped him understand how the advertising business works.
Would it work?
Mukhbir Singh, an assistant professor of communication and the person who encouraged the pair to enter the contest, said he tries to help his students gain on-thejob experience before they graduate.
“It has always been my intent to get them to do projects that are real-life instead of hypothetical,” he said.
Singh said the project was a good learning experience and will be good for the students’ resumes. He said his role was to lead them through the process and encourage them to think independently.
He also explained that some things would be easy to do and some would not.
“Some concepts are very good in theory and on the story board, but they are difficult to execute,” Singh said. “I told them it should be easy to execute.”
Interplay of info
Travis Parman, communications manager for Chevrolet, said the company was impressed with the results of the contest, which was open only to college students.
“Nothing like this has ever been done before,” he said. “We didn’t really know what to expect.”
One important aspect of the project was the reciprocal relationship between Chevrolet and the students, Parman said. The students learned about advertising and the company learned about the student demographic.
“We wanted to learn from them how to create messages that resonate within that youth market,” Parman said.
Some of the teams did only a storyboard or simple animation; Parman praised the Weber State team for actually filming their commercial.
There was a lot of diversity in ideas and concepts, Parman said, as well as in what kind of students participated. Advertising students competed, but so did students from other disciplines, including fine arts, international business and English.
The Weber State students’ commercial is going head-to-head with two other humorous commercial entries. To vote for a favorite and view other videos, go to www.cbsnews.com. and click on the Early Show tab.
Weber State University Ogden, Utah 84408 |