On September 9th, Kevin Worthen will be inaugurated as the 13th president of BYU. I know this because I received a formal invitation to the inauguration activities in my campus mail box last week. Like most of the communications that come from the President's Office at BYU, the invitation was highly formal and signaled the formality and tradition associated with the event. Like most formal invitations, it was also highly impersonal and forgettable, except for the curious image that appeared on the front cover (see below):I didn't notice it at first, but the tone of the cover raises some funny (if not alarming) questions about the next few years at BYU: Is there a storm brewing? Are dark clouds ahead? I wasn't worried about the new President, but should I be?
It's a nice enough image of an iconic aspect of BYU, but it's a strange image to select to announce this particular event. Dark, ominous clouds aren't really what I would use to represent an event that most would associate with new beginnings, renewal, and optimism. I'm actually looking forward to President Worthen's administration and have no reason not to be optimistic, but optimism isn't what I feel when I look at this invitation.
Image #2: The 2014 BYU Football T-Shirts
After I read this story, I started to wonder if BYU Athletics and the President's Office might have been using the same marketing intern this summer. In what I see as delicious irony, it was revealed this week that BYU Football's anticipated 2014 slogan ("Rise as One") has already been used by. . .wait for it. . .Budweiser of all corporations (you couldn't make this stuff up), not to mention by Nike the year before . Not really the association the athletic department was going for. Apparently, no one had the 12 seconds it would have taken to do a google search of the slogan before printing thousands of t-shirts.
Image #3: "Please tell me he's not one of our alumni"
People tend to turn into idiots when they have a microphone, news camera, or reporter in front of them, as demonstrated very well by Cliven Bundy over the last few months. Not only are Bundy's views on government extremist and skewed, it appears that he is also racist and somewhat deluded. I cringe anytime I see any news story associated with he or his family, but especially when I saw this accompanying photo this week (look at the t-shirt his son has on).
I don't know if Cliven Lance Bundy (the son) ever attended BYU, but just him wearing the shirt in front of reporters is probably enough to make the Alumni Association pretty nervous.
So, to the President's Office, BYU Athletics, and the Bundy clan--thanks for making me laugh this week! Here's to hoping the press for BYU is a little less embarrassing next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment