Université de Moncton in New Brunswick released a 30-second spot showcasing their institutions attractions. This includes, but is not limited to shaky-cam footage of students on a beach, some kid running with an Acadian flag, a man with perfectly styled hair removing a body suit, the classic “look at me pointing at a computer screen” pose, and…what’s this? Students shoving their tongues down in each others’ throats in the library? Then, of course, we cut to a scene of a wild party and woman sticking her tongue out at the camera.
The video is vaguely familiar to a University of Ottawa frosh video that drew controversy last summer. Before it was taken down by its creators, the video featured what could only be described as a prepubescent boy’s wet dream.
In response to the uproar the video has caused, the university’s director of communications and marketing, Marc Angers had this to say: “When you launch an ad campaign there is people that like it, and people that don’t. We did [market] testing for a target audience of 16-18 years of age. And the research showed they were looking for lifestyle when they chose a post-secondary education.”
This is why our interest rates are being cut.
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The cleverness doesn’t stop there. Being the only bilingual province in Canada, Université de Moncton played with the word “langue” in their narration. It could mean “language” or “tongue”, depending on the situation. The word was said six times in the video, including in the library scene. See how clever that is?
Marie-Noelle Ryan, president of the university’s professor’s and librarians’ association has told prospective students that they will be disappointed if they expect sexy library antics from university life.
She argues the video is “a false image of what it is to study at the university.” In reality, studying in university in 2015 involves liver damage, political kid-gloves, condoms raining like confetti, texting while walking, and having sex with someone you’ve known for 36 minutes.
In the end, Angers believed the campaign was a success. “It did what it was aimed for: it generated awareness,” he said.
Yeah. Just like a fiery crotch generates awareness about pubic lice.