Activities & Organizations

Students compete in ad campaign for US health

UH was selected as one of four schools to compete in an advertising campaign project for the United States Public Health Service.

The University was chosen for the competition from a pool of 50 schools and will run against the University of California Los Angeles, New York University and the University of Pittsburgh.

“I’m excited,” Account Director Kimberly Guel said. “There wasn’t that much advertisement for USPHS, and it is giving us an opportunity to do much more. We also have much more to work with. We were paving a new way for recruitment and advertisement for USHPS.”

Instructional Professor Larry Kelley is leading the students and said he looks forward to challenging them.

“The beauty of this particular curriculum is that every application process is real,” Kelley said. “They have a real client and real money to spend. They do real work, and it will be out in the market place.”

The campaign is currently in the briefing stage. The team presented its plan to its client Tuesday and will have to wait for approval to implement it.

“We’re focused and treating this as a real job,” Media and Public Relations Director Joseph Jass said. “Everyone at Cougar Concepts takes this seriously. We don’t think of this as a class — but as a job. We are getting paid to do this and execute this. So we want to do the best job possible. We are jumping in. We aren’t just tapping our toes in the water. We’re soaked.”

Participating students said they are working to surpass the set of challenges and expectations Kelley has set for them.

“He (Kelley’s) has asked for our commitment, and he made it clear that we are not just representing ourselves; we are representing the communications school and the University of Houston,” Guel said. “Our name is on it so it needs to be the best product we can produce. ”

The students involved will benefit from the experience and will also have a good addition to their resumes.

“In the end we will produce a plans book and we will be able to use this when we are looking for other jobs or internships,” Account Director Wenkin Siu said. “We will be able to say we did this and I did this.”

The competition will be graded based on results and creativity, and will conclude with a video chronicling every step of the competition.

“I’m going to go back and look at where I can improve,” Jass said. “Whether it be timeline or execution and use this as another step to starting a prosperous career.”

Leave a Comment