Ad Team Brings National Success Home to Providence Campus

After claiming a first place victory in this year's regional competition of the American Advertising Federation (AAF) National Conference -- surpassing Boston University, Boston College, the University of Hartford, Quinnipiac College and host Emerson College -- the ad team from JWU's Providence Campus competed in the national finals in Washington D.C.

In Washington, the JWU team faced off against some of the nation's most prominent advertising programs, placing 13th out of the 18 schools that competed in the finals and the 140 colleges and universities that took part in the overall competition.

The team's 21-minute presentation has been divided into three videos. The first introduces the concept of "Binge Thinking." The second highlights how the team planned to apply the strategy of their proposal. The final video shows the team's creative plans to bring their approach to campus. Additionally, the team developed a planbook that details the team's strategy and approach.

Ilya Vedrashko, Emerging Media Strategist at Hill Holliday, and an editor with AdLab said of team's performance: "This presentation showcases some of the smartest thinking I've ever seen coming from persuasion pros of any age and caliber."

This year's contest marked the first time the students were asked to address a social issue via public service advertising, to promote positive behavioral change -- the prevention of overconsumption of alcohol among college students. The target client was the Century Council, which is a leading organization in the fight against drunk driving and underage drinking, through promotion of responsible decision-making.

The team's focus was simple -- create subtle but effective ways to "nudge" the two critical elements that cause binge drinking -- how much and how fast students drink -- and then provide students with choices that result in safer behavior. To accomplish this, the team created a proactive, forward-thinking plan designed to involve college administrators in student activities, with the goal of reducing negative consequences that result from alcohol consumption.

JWU's campaign not only targeted prevention of this problem, but also aimed to redefine prevailing attitudes toward alcohol use among college students. Research showed that anti-drinking advertising had not significantly changed the behavior of college students in the past 20 years, and felt that a standard ad campaign would fall short.

The JWU ad team members are Juan Alvarado, Abigail Agress, Foluso Akinkuotu, Sierra Barter, Andrew Childers, Ginelle DeAntonis, Victoria Deetz, Evan Dunn, Yousef Khory, Audrey Kushner, Bruce Millard, Joseph Russomano, Jonathan Vega and Nicholas Verrochi. The team was guided by advisors Oscar Chilabato, Tom Monahan and Christine Ure.