|
Well, here's a third view: we chose Oberlin regardless of the slogan, based on "fit"; in our instance, both parents and kid thought the "fearless" campaign was ok, kind of fun - we "got" the point and didn't think it meant "athletes" or "people who don't think before they act" but we also saw it as a slogan, which it was, and it showed that there was a perceived need to rebrand because of a perception that Oberlin is underrated. So the effort was clearly to appeal more broadly. Many students at Oberlin when it came out felt it was not sufficiently vetted with them; and they felt they were betrayed. Surely that was not the intent. The materials (factbook and the now defunct internet fearless portal) were a bit lurid for my taste, but apparently tested well enough in marketing studies for the effort to go forward. There's a lot of stationary that says "fearless" but I will bet that it is at best, in future, only one of several approaches. Certainly the new website is not "fearless" focussed; it is filled with stories, blogs, videos (there are videos for most of the conservatory faculty and many of the A & S faculty); there is a new administration and new communications going on. So this argument is really about something that is no longer a big issue and not worth wrangling over. One thing, though, Fearless does make for some good jokes and ironic t-shirts.
|