Advertising copy Pt. 2

Here are two that we used in print that I think hold up well.

The college typically employs Dale Peterson for most of its photography and he is an absolute blast to work with. He's a fun guy to start, but he is such a gracious photographer and willing to try just about any idea.

Anyway ... I was there when Dale shot the photo for this ad and I don't remember exactly why, but I was walking back to my office from the glassworking studio. I wasn't 10 feet from the door of the studio when the copy came to me.



From the outset of my time on the job, I wanted the college media messages to carry more swagger. Instead of "I go to to Chemeketa Comm ... (mumble, mumble)," I wanted people to say "I go to Chemeketa COMMUNITY COLLEGE." There are so many reasons for pride in that school and I wanted our advertising, especially, to reflect it. This was the closest I was able to get to that original vision.

Advertising copy Pt. 1

In my short-lived foray into the world of public relations, I got to hone my ad copy skills. It can be a lot of fun, but it is different from most other types of writing. Advertising, whether it's print or television (I didn't get the chance to do a radio advert), requires seeing the big picture before setting off in a specific direction when sitting down to write.

These ads were never used by the college, but I felt they were the best I produced for a single reason. As a community college, the institution has so many different missions and tendrils into so many facets of the community that it's simply overwhelming to try and find a one-sentence or one-word descriptor. My thought with these ads was that the audience learned what it needed to know about the institution, by learning more about the people who worked there and were drawn to it themselves. It would have been just as easy to use the same format with students.

There's actually a much longer story about the "Be inspired" tag line that was one of my greatest disappointments in the job. Suffice it to say that it was all very Jerry Maguire.

(All photos, copy and layout are by me on these.)