It’s 2005. Do you know where your life is?
Yes, I do. It’s right here, sitting on this couch, not
going to the Hammer Museum, a UCLA Live event or even a
women’s gymnastics meet.
But lucky for me (and you), UCLA has launched a new media
campaign ““ UCLA Happenings ““ to inform students of all
the events on campus so that maybe they will get up off that
couch.
While traffic on the happenings.ucla.edu Web site is brisk and
attendance is up at events around campus, I have misgivings about
the campaign, and they start with the silly slogan,
“It’s 2005. Do you know where your life is?” My
qualms end with the fact that in the long run I don’t think
the campaign can get students off their couches.
In theory the campaign is a good idea because it is important
for students to take advantage of everything UCLA offers. Yet, the
problem is, in many ways it’s part of the college experience
to not go to art museums, classical music performances and lecture
series. I mean this in all seriousness: College students are too
busy eating, dating, going to class, and seeing their favorite band
to go to an Alaskan violinist’s reinterpretation of a 13th
century Japanese folk song about wheat. No amount of slick (or not
so slick) marketing can change that.
And in case you’re wondering, the media campaign has cost
$50,000, which was given by the UCLA Foundation, said Nancy Ozeas,
senior executive director of university communications.
In a Feb. 15 Daily Bruin article titled “Traffic is an
advantage for media campaign,” UCLA spokesman Lawrence Lokman
made it clear that the Happenings campaign could become a part of
the school’s annual budget.
“We’ll reassess the investment of resources and what
people think at the end,” Lokman said. “I’m
committed to finding a place in the communications budget for next
year.”
It may be that students here are much less committed to the
campaign than university communications.
UCLA students are among the brightest in the land. You work hard
in class, and you actually enjoy going to museums (you loved the
Louvre). But when was the last time you went to the Fowler Museum
of Cultural History?
You’ve never been there. I know. I hadn’t either,
until I went on Thursday afternoon to research for this column.
While the media blitz may have spiked interest in many of the
cultural events on campus, I fear that the increased interest is
only short-lived. As students grow accustomed to seeing the
campaign’s ads on kiosks and bus stops, traffic to the
Happenings Web site will slow ““ and so will attendance at
events.
Perhaps the Happenings campaign could use some retooling as
well. Thankfully, the dreadfully confusing “Drop the
laptop” slogan has been put to bed, but the
“Where’s your life, bro” slogan still inspires
fits of confusion and sleepiness. Does it mean I am living an
unfulfilled life?
Also, you may recall seeing spotlights at places like Pauley
Pavilion and Royce Hall at various times during the past month.
This is part of the campaign as well ““ it is meant literally
to spotlight on-campus events.
“We did have people there, we had street teams near the
spotlights,” Ozeas said. “People were out and about
checking it out.”
After leaving a recent men’s basketball game I remember
seeing the spotlight, thinking it was weird, and then walking home
to play video games. Hello malaise.
I do think the Happenings Web site is easy to use and
attractive. I also like that many different aspects of the media
campaign point students to this Web site as a sort of portal into
the cultural wonderland that is UCLA.
When I asked students why they don’t seek out cultural
events on campus, I was often told the events available to students
simply are not engaging and therefore students aren’t
interested.
I put that theory to the test when I visited the Fowler Museum
and it proved to be feeble. I was very impressed with Larry
Yust’s Street Seen exhibition, and the Botánica Los
Angeles exhibition. I even told a few friends they should see the
exhibits for themselves. But like I said, I went to the museum to
do research.
While at the museum, I carefully noted those who were in
attendance. I saw a few adults meandering through the Street Seen
exhibit, and as I wandered around the museum (in a state of
cultural ecstasy nearing catatonia) I bumped into three young
women. Assuming they were UCLA students, I asked them whether they
had come to the museum because they heard about it via the
Happenings campaign. Nope. They were Cal State Northridge students
and had to go to the museum for a class assignment. The only other
people I saw at the museum were a large group of UCLA students. I
didn’t bother asking whether they were at the museum for fun
because they were being lectured by their professor on the
Botánica exhibit.
I asked Fowler Museum gallery attendant John Piccione about
student attendance and he said it has increased, chalking it up to
the quality of the current exhibitions. But Piccione also noted
that more “professors are using the museum as a teaching
tool.” Isn’t the point to get students to the museum on
their own?
But if UCLA can get you hooked on its dance recitals and flute
concertos, well, university communications hopes it can keep you
hooked for life, peddling the stuff to you deep into your adult
years.
“We did this in response to students saying:
“˜I’ve been here for four years and I never knew the
Hammer Museum existed,'” Ozeas said. “This is
useful to alumni too. You may want to bring kids back or go on a
date. You are welcome to come back to go to the Fowler, or a
basketball game. We thought the best way to attack it was while
students are here.”
C’mon, the Hammer Museum isn’t even on campus. Do
you really expect us to go there? And who said anything about kids?
UCLA, you sure move fast.
E-mail Miller at dmiller@media.ucla.edu.