Following on from yesterday's blog entry, here's a student recruitment film from Appalachian State University that became an Internet phenomenon in 2005.  

Unfortunately, the 2' 17" second PowerPoint-style slide show of images around the University's campus, cut to an original song claiming that the school is "hot hot hot", inadvertently played into the stereotype that people from Appalachia are unsophisticated and out of touch. An editorial in the Appalachian State student newspaper criticised the video, calling it "so ridiculously tacky one cannot help but laugh when watching it," adding, "The jingle is horrible, the lyrics are absurd and the pictures make Appalachian seem like an institution stuck in the 1970s."

However, the video was not actually an official project and in the wake of the response is no longer used by the University. It was originally created for the Appalachian Family Caravan tour by Chancellor Kenneth E. Peacock and then posted to the University's website. Peacock described the video's role in promotion:

"It was used primarily for the Appalachian Caravan, taking it out with us on the road to show that Appalachian is a great institution and it’s hot in many ways. So in order to understand fully that video, you almost had to be at one of those Caravan events. I think they took it off the Web site because, without it being a Caravan event, it’s confusing. People don’t really understand what the message is with the song. It was all done in fun, to go and energize our alumni and say here are some things that are happening on campus, holding up the highlights of faculty, programs, accomplishments of students, and say ‘You know why this is possible? It’s because Appalachian is hot. It builds all around that whole theme." 

Take a look at the video and see what you think?

For quality student recruitment films with proven results, get in touch with Spectrecom. Having worked with over 30 institutions, from small colleges to the most prestigious UK universities, we are the UK’s leading producers of student recruitment videos.