MC 307 Team Assignment
Legal & Ethical Issues in SUD Promo Materials

You've landed the job of director of publications for the State University of Dilworth, and have developed a promotional plan for the coming year that includes a variety of elements. Prepare a memo for Milo Hatzenbeuhler, Ph.D., vice president for university advancement, outlining the legal and ethical issues that should be considered in implementing each of these projects.

Some of the projects have major legal or ethical complications. Others may have no problems attached. Please address each of them by number.

  1. Develop a new "First look" brochure — to include long, medium and CU (close-up) photos of students in classes, at football games, in dorm rooms, in library and participating in activities such as dances and volunteer programs (Big Brother/Big Sister with assigned "little brothers" or "little sisters").
     
  2. Design and produce a series of ads for placement in weekly and daily newspapers. Theme is "why I chose SUD." Will include photos and testimonials from current students.
     
  3. Produce three radio spots using the same messages as in #2, with the students repeating the same thoughts themselves.
     
  4. Hire a photographer to take photos for these and other projects. The images will be maintained for media publicity, publications, advertising, posters and other undetermined uses.
     
  5. Reprint and distribute favorable articles that have appeared in Time, Fortune, Minnesota Monthly and The Forum.
     
  6. Develop a newsletter for staff, "Recruiting Is Everybody's Business,” that will include a "recruiter of the month" biographical profile honoring an individual who has made an outstanding effort to sign up new students, along with appropriate job-oriented cartoons (Dilbert, Cathy, Zits).
     
  7. Promote SUD’s 100 percent placement record in a news release that quotes Job Service Minnesota's research data on "hot jobs of the coming 10 years in Minnesota."
     
  8. Produce a series of direct-mail postcards with photos of personalities whom high school students admire, with messages like these: 
    bullet "You don't have to be Kevin Garnett to make the team at SUD." 
    bullet "You don't have to be Gwen Stefani to sing in the SUD choir." 
    bullet "You don't have to be Coldplay to be a hit at SUD."
    bullet "You don't have to be Bill Gates to afford to go to SUD."
     
  9. Develop a direct-mail fund raiser for the SUD scholarship program — illustrated with photos of students whose education would not have been possible without these funds.

15 points