Brigham Young Universty’s student operated advertisement agency’s new video for teach.org isn’t pulling any punches. “This is a warning, and it might be the only one you get,” said actor Stephen Jones in the ad. “For those of you who don’t mind leaving the world unchanged, this is not for you.”The Ad Council, a national PSA organization, selected the BYU Adlab to take on the challenge from their client TEACH.org. The goal was to establish teaching as a competitive career choice for top performing students, and to help both high school and early college STEM students think of teaching as a challenging, rewarding career option.
“The BYU Adlab is the only student agency of record for the national Ad Council,” said Pat Doyle, Adlab manager. “We’ve done dozens of projects for the Ad Council over the last ten years.”
Adlab students responded to the challenge and pitched several ideas to both the Ad Council and TEACH.org in script and storyboard form.. At the halfway mark, the Adlab faced an unexpected obstacle.
“The entire spot was a long process written and created by more than twenty BYU students,” Doyle said. “TEACH.org got new leadership and put our schedule way behind, taking it about a year to complete.”
The students used the unexpected time delay wisely as they took advantage of their campus surroundings by calling upon multiple departments to offer their tools of the trade.
“We partnered with students from TMA to do location scouting, talent selection and all pre-production. BYU students filmed, edited, mixed and created the entire spot,” Doyle said. “Ron Saltmarsh, associate teaching professor of commercial music, along with a student, did the entire music and audio score.”
The advertisement will be launched by the Ad Council’s social agency on TEACH.org’s social channels. The video will also be featured in an additional promotion as part of a partnership with the College Football Playoff Foundation kicking up this month.