By Mark Wallington
UNLV Asst. SID
Being a Rebel is more than just an attitude, it is also an award-winning campaign that is attracting new students to UNLV.
In fact, the school's "Be A Rebel" advertising campaign earned five honors at the 14th Annual Admissions Advertising Awards competition, including the top award - Best of Show.
The multi-media campaign featured UNLV faculty members in newspaper and television ads and on billboards. Lynette Boggs McDonald, UNLV's director of marketing and community relations, developed "Be A Rebel" in conjunction with Thomas Puckett Advertising. UNLV communication and film studies students assisted with some aspects of the campaign.
Sponsored by the Atlanta-based "Admissions Marketing Report," the competition drew entries from several hundred universities across the United States and Canada.
In addition to best of show, the campaign took a gold medal in the newspaper?advertising category, silver medals in outdoor billboard and total advertising campaign categories as well as a bronze medal in the television ad competition.
"It's very rewarding to know that we produced an advertising campaign that not only fared well against hundreds of other entries, but that also has been successful in terms of attracting more potential students for UNLV," McDonald, said. "Since the campaign began, there has been a substantial increase both in the number of requests for information about the university and in terms of actual applications for admissions."
UNLV professors featured in the ad campaign were Nasser Daneshvary, associate dean of the College of Business, Juli Dixon, assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, Francisco Menendez, associate professor of film studies, Margaret Rees, professor of geoscience, and Rainer Spencer, assistant professor of anthropology.
The next phase of "Be a Rebel" will feature selected alumni of the school.
