Student: Joshua Benefield

To continue my theme of addressing societal issues through visual communication, I chose a very localized issue to Jacksonville State University, and admittedly to many colleges, if not most, across the country. The addition of the dreaded “Freshman Fifteen” or the estimated fifteen pounds a freshman is expected to gain in their first year of college.

This project involved both research in traditional university advertisement methods as well as grassroots marketing, and the use of social media to deliver messages and help spread them organically among the student body.

The first order of business was the actually create awareness of the problem of this unwanted weight gain. Hoping to capitalize on the social nature of networking and information exchange within the university student body, this project undertook quite a unique delivery mechanism to reach the target audience of first year freshman at Jacksonville State University.

The end result was a grassroots/guerrilla marketing campaign, which combined multiple facets of traditional college campus advertisement vehicles. Printed posters were the starting point, followed by business cards that were two sided, one half containing a definition, and the other side containing one of the freshman fifteen awareness posters, which was branded with the hashtag #losethefreshman15. In addition to these printed media devices, magnets, sidewalk chalk stencils, and tear off bulletin board advertisements were all created. This allowed for the placement of these articles on boards, on walls, doors, table tops, and exterior metal surfaces, such as signs, bike racks and bus stops, in order to reach the maximum number of students, with the intent of making them have such a fun message, and in such abundance, that they would be taken by the student body as collectables.

The key component to this campaign at Jacksonville State University is the fact that the Chief Ladiga Trail, a paved Rails to Trails multi-use trail runs right through the campus. With the consistent branding of the hashtag #losethefreshman15, users, once hopefully made aware of the situation, would search out the hashtag, either out of genuine interest, or curiosity at the message, as it was the only branding.

This would lead any searchers to the Twitter account established at @losefreshman15, which informs viewers through different tweets about the benefits of getting out, getting exercise, and how easy it is to utilize the trail that runs right through campus. Sidewalk stencils tie into this as well, as they direct users from the dorms, toward the trail itself, being closely positioned to the bike racks with magnets, and doors to dorms with both collectable magnets as well as posters and rip off flyers.

Using satire and humor, multiple definitions were created in order to make light of the situation, as well as unflattering imagery of both males and females showing off their bare, overweight middles, often with unbuttoned pants, and in anything but appealing nature. By making light of the situation, this allows the campaign to feel more appealing than a strict message telling students how they should act and that gaining weight is bad. Encouraging students to come to the realization of the situation on their own will only help reinforce the message that they need to do something about the situation before it is too late, and that it is too easy to get out and be active on the trail.