University's kissing commercial sparks passionate debate
A University of Moncton commercial featuring two students kissing in the library is still generating a passionate debate over its appropriateness.
The promotional video, which will play on local television until the end of March, has been widely shared on social media and spread across the internet.
The video was also the subject of a class discussion at the New Brunswick Community College on Wednesday.
Andy Petersen, a marketing instructor at NBCC in Moncton, said he used the video to illustrate the complexities of marketing, from a local perspective.
“It's not often that we get local controversy in advertising to talk about,” Petersen said.
“And it’s a good learning tool to take an existing piece of advertising and say why did they do it? What were they thinking about? Who were they trying to target?”
The controversy started when Marie-Noëlle Ryan, the president of the university's professors' and librarians' association, called the commercial "pathetic."
"It's the way it's like selling the university, like it's a beer product," Ryan said earlier this week.
Pathetic or not, the 30-second ad has been widely viewed since the controversy arose. The video had more than 92,000 views on YouTube on Thursday morning.
Opinion in the NBCC marketing class was divided on whether the commercial was successful at marketing to the intended demographic.
Beth Galloway, a student, argued the university missed out on advertising to people who are looking for a quality education.
“As a student who is looking for a university to go to after this course, I would have liked to have seen something that had more academic-driven content as opposed to lifestyle,” Galloway said.
Calixte Leblanc, however, said he thought the video was entertaining. Leblanc and others also emphasized that selling lifestyle is just part of good marketing.
His concern with the ad had nothing to do with the library scene.
“But the one thing I was disappointed, it didn't represent the diversity that the actual l'Université de Moncton has,” Leblanc said.
Many people in the marketing class thought the controversy over the video is good for the university interest in the school.
On mobile? Watch the University of Moncton commercial here
