There are good advertising campaigns… and then there is “What Starts Here Changes The World.”
Everyone who has watched a football game in the last couple of years or has heard of the University of Texas probably knows what I am talking about. Simple, to the point narratives stretched over different imagery of Austin and the campus, the ads ‘give you the chills’ if your a UT student / alumni and pretty much tell everyone else what they are missing out on.
First off the tagline is great. It is carried over in all the literature and campaigns that go on around a university and has become commonplace on campus, but when voiced over by David Carradine (the whataburger commercials) evokes a completely different emotion. It has its roots in the new plan of the University to not just be a world class institution of higher learning but to spread its emphasis in research and a few other areas; but has coincided with a spreading of UT’s image for a couple of different reasons.
This is not the sole reason, but UT Athletics in the past few years has an absolutely unprecedented string of notable achievements. There is still no greater advertisement than a winning football team. (Applicants to the university shot up 50% after the national championship team and continue to destroy records every year since then) The university was already headed in a very positive direction pre-Vince Young, but the ability to showcase that on a national scale can’t be matched. Then UT came along and got serious playtime for this bunch of ads during that time.
Everytime this commercial comes on (they play them during the football games on the godzilla-tron) it gets the same kind of cheering you would expect from a winning touchdown. Every arm is raised with the ‘horns up and eye turned toward the screen. What kind of ad evokes that reaction? It really is powerful not only to the 100,000 in the stadium on gamedays but every time it is played on TV.
The ads are simple but the images are powerful . Watch ‘ em.
Put Your Horns Up During game :
Quicktime Links
(favorite) : Horns Up
(same vid, different message, hook’em horns)Rallying Cry