D+ Campaign

There has been a tremendous amount of controversy regarding the D+ campaign. The general consensus nation wide is that was worst possible idea the University could have come up; alumni were extraordinarly pissed; national media routinely mocked us; Creighton slapped "If we can't beat a D+ school, who can we beat." Yeah ... it stung.

But I want to speak to the defense of this misfit slogan, despite it already being dropped like a 2 ton sack of crap by the University. The original idea wasn't all that bad. The administration and all the up-'n-ups knew the risk of running a joke, and the campaign actually was planned fairly well out. If you were a upperclassmen in high school, you would receive this folder with the now infamous logo and the slogan, "A D+ school and proud of it." The student's thinking, 'What the hell? That's freakin' weird." So they look inside and there is all this really well prepared material explaining the D+ means that when you come to Drake you get more than just a education; you get an enriching experience adding substance and quality to your life and your personal development. I'm heavily paraphrasing, but yeah.

The problem happened when on the website it totes this D+ slogan, and a person from the associated press or an alumni read it with none of the explanation of the folder's material. They are stuck at the 'What the hell? That's freakin' weird' stage.

The problem I have though, is that Drake knew this would be a risky campaign; they knew they would be poking fun at themselves a bit. But as soon as people start laughing, they back down leaving people to perceive the whole move even more so as a regrettible mistake. The campaign says "D+ and proud of it," but Drake hardly went into this full heartedly. If you're going to doing something outlandish, then of course people are going to laugh at you at first. The buffoons who graduate to brilliance, are those who dismay the nay-sayers and plow forward with the confidence of and self-assurance of an entity that knows it is ultimately right and has the vision to see the end goal.

I still like it better than the fruity little song and dance routine Yale whipped out.