While it’s easy to knock advertising, there are occasions where it becomes irresistable. One such occasion is the latest campaign for the newly formed University of West Scotland (formerly Paisley University and Bell College). Around a suitably vague new-wave tagline of ‘Inspired’ are several variations of shots in some kind of concrete bunker, of what look like people who have just wandered out of the nearest GAP store. We felt obliged to put the following questions to the University of West Scotland:
– What was the creative rationale behind the concept? What does ‘inspired’ stand for? What was the reason behind relating that word to the image?
– It strikes me that all the students featured are rather photogenic. On what basis were the students chosen? Could anyone apply to be part of the campaign or were they selected?
– Were the students dressed by a stylist or allowed to wear what they wanted?
The University felt obliged to not comment. I can only therefore assume that the students were handpicked as being ‘photogenic’, they were dressed by a stylist and there was no rational behind the ‘fashion’ image, it’s context or the link to the university.
Everyone does design jobs that for one reason or another don’t turn out as they would have liked, but the ‘thinking’ behind this seems so cold and heartless as to be completely cynical. The sub-text, when reading between the lines, is that the University thinks the students it is trying to recruit aspire to nothing more than dressing ‘trendily’, and the patronising notion that the students it traditionally recruits from certain social demographics, (whatever they might be), can’t comprehend anything beyond a pastiche of the simplistic fashion/brand marketing messages they are fed every day.