Would You Go To A College That Gets A Grade Of D+?

And that is a grade that they gave themself! Their new ad has a big "D+" in it. See Great moments in collegiate marketing: Drake University’s ‘D+’ campaign. Here is an exerpt:

"If you were going to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a higher education, would you want the end result to be known as a "D+" education?

Probably not.

And therein lies the problem some have with Drake University's new marketing campaign.

Touting the ways it can help students "be transformed by an experience that puts opportunity into action and gives purpose to your passion," the Des Moines, Iowa-based school has elected to dub its added pedagogic value the "D+ Advantage" campaign. The tagline for the promo campaign: "Your passion + our experience."

The administration tried to justify it by saying:

"...the ad blitz [was] "edgy and intriguing" and the campaign "was designed to catch the attention of high school students who are bombarded with college and university materials to the point that they are often in information overload and unable to differentiate among the many institutions that have contacted them.""

There may be something to that. Information is costly to obtain and maybe many of the brochures and webstites that students look at end up looking pretty much the same. So how does a school get your attention? By having a very different kind of ad. But this might not have been the best way to go about it.