This advertisement depicts a young woman in the local scenery engaging in the outdoors. Created by Thompson Rivers University, the ad’s intention is to recruit locals to attend Thompson Rivers University. The subject is centred to the left of the image, with the short tag line, website, and university logo on the bottom right of the image. The young woman and her horse are in sharp focus while the background, presumably their residence, is blurred with shallow depth of field. The woman’s clothing suggests that the advertisement is set in the present day, in a rural setting. The woman’s jacket has the most vibrant colours in the image, which contrast the muted tones in the blurred background, and draws the viewer’s eyes to the subject. Her general facial expressions and body language show contentment, which gives the whole advertisement a generally relaxed feeling. The text in the image has varied size, with smaller words in a different colour, meant to make them stand out from the larger text. With minimal text on the advertisement, the image more strongly conveys the message of a youth engaging in the study of her choice, in a local university. The text addresses the viewer directly, implying that they too, while attending a local university, could engage with the world on their own terms, from anywhere in the world. This advertisement effectively conveys its message to the target audience, allowing the image to show the positive experience of being a university student in a rural setting. The advertisement depicts a young woman in the local environment engaging in the outdoors, to continue their local life, engage in their everyday activities, and attend classes on their own terms without compromising their existing routines. The advertisement is on a billboard on the side of the road on a busy street in Kamloops, near the location of the university. By using the local environment as a backdrop for the ad, recognizable to those citizens who live within the area and are familiar with the scenery, it engages the viewer to study at their local university, rather than attending a university in another city, which would typically have an urban background. This advertisement would most likely be seen by drivers, or passengers in a car. With minimal text, and a combination of local scenery in the image, it appears that the intention of the ad is to recruit locals to attend TRU. The advertisement only uses the acronym TRU for the university rather than the University’s full name, indicating it is meant to engage the local population, rather than tourists. In November of 2018, TRU received the environmental designation of “STARS, developed by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education” (Campus Strategic Sustainability Plan, 5) due to their commitment to campus environmental sustainability issues. In November of 2019, TRU was considered to be the highest STAR ranked university in the world. (Campus Strategic Sustainability Plan, 5) The rural appeal depicted in their the student recruitment advertisement is supported by the university’s environmental reputation for sustainability. However, little to no reputable peer reviewed critiques are available of TRU’s sustainability initiatives outside of those resources on TRU’s own website.
Work Cited
CAMPUS STRATEGIC SUSTAINABILITY PLAN 2020–2025 December 2019.
Thompson Rivers University, 2019,
www.tru.ca/__shared/assets/campus- strategic-sustainability-
plan-2020-202547354.pdf. Accessed 21 September 2020.