And here's your new SMU Football ad campaign!

[PlanoStang]

...these are truly the last days of what has been a pretty decent run. Bush league comes to mind, after thought, poorly funded?..is this some discounted campaign? This makes "Kick 'em Stangs" look like an award winner.

Wait a while, and give it a second thought.

My first idea after reading this was:

SMU Mustangs

Some neat background, and logo stuff

Alive & KICKING

[PonyPride]

Folks — back away from the ledge.

I've seen some of the Pony Up stuff. The stuff I've seen does not bring to mind the "Pony Up" (as in financial) ideas that some have floated here. I have been told by several folks in the athletic department that the commercials and visual ads (in publications, on billboards, etc.) goes way beyond the simple Pony logo with the arrow. Needless to say, TV (and radio) commercials will have a lot more than that, too.

Considering the fact that there basically has been NO campaign in recent years, any campaign is a step up. It's a good thing that there will be a visible presence around town. In my opinion, bashing it before anyone sees it is premature, at best. The marketing budget has grown to the extent that I'm fairly sure any exposure we have will dwarf anything we've seen around here in a long, long time.

[PlanoStang]

wow, guys, wow.

This does not represent the Richards Group at all--I thought they were better than this.

It looks like a Pony running into a telephone.

Whatever

Like you have a vote here.

[FroggieFever]

wow, guys, wow.

This does not represent the Richards Group at all--I thought they were better than this.

It looks like a Pony running into a telephone.

Whatever

Like you have a vote here.

[mrydel]

MM65:

I was not referring to your rant on your manifesto,which was a personal blog and a total embarrasment to me as an alumnus of SMU. I am referring to January 23, 2007 when predictions were being made and you stated that you no longer cared and SMU made you "retch". You predicted 0-12 said Hasta LaVista, said you were tired of going to bed mad on Saturday and waking up pleasantly surprised on Sunday (now that is a typo). You said no more season tickets, no Mustang Club and probably would not renew your license plate. I do not think I want you leading the charge for marketing my school. You are correct that you did not call Orisini and Turner deroggatory names (my bad) but you said they were running the program with smoke and mirrors and were doing nothing to further the program. Now we have a new marketing campaign. Something we have not had for years and you are calling the marketing department and going off on a program that has not yet been released. Why can you not have the decency to wait until after it is released to act like you know more than the professionals. Sure, it may well be a flop. Personally I think it is going to go over very well. But neither one of us know what it will do until it is presented.

Chill, have patience and see what happens. You are not going to change their plans. Let them do their job. Nobody has done anything like this in the past 20 years and it is about time something was done to promote the school.

And, there was no typo. I was referring back to college days when a persons roommate (a he) would have a sister and ask you if you wanted to go out with her. If the roommate was ugly you might assume the sister was also. But it would be better to at least get a look at the sister before making up your mind. All I am asking is to take a look at the sister. Then we can all give our opinions. Calling the marketing department and complaining before "seeing the sister" is just wrong.

You need to get back to the force and leave the Darkside. You are not good at being a jihadist. You were born to shine your sun.

[MrMustang1965]

MM65:

I was not referring to your rant on your manifesto,which was a personal blog and a total embarrasment to me as an alumnus of SMU. I am referring to January 23, 2007 when predictions were being made and you stated that you no longer cared and SMU made you "retch". You predicted 0-12 said Hasta LaVista, said you were tired of going to bed mad on Saturday and waking up pleasantly surprised on Sunday (now that is a typo). You said no more season tickets, no Mustang Club and probably would not renew your license plate. I do not think I want you leading the charge for marketing my school. You are correct that you did not call Orisini and Turner deroggatory names (my bad) but you said they were running the program with smoke and mirrors and were doing nothing to further the program. Now we have a new marketing campaign. Something we have not had for years and you are calling the marketing department and going off on a program that has not yet been released. Why can you not have the decency to wait until after it is released to act like you know more than the professionals. Sure, it may well be a flop. Personally I think it is going to go over very well. But neither one of us know what it will do until it is presented.

Chill, have patience and see what happens. You are not going to change their plans. Let them do their job. Nobody has done anything like this in the past 20 years and it is about time something was done to promote the school.

And, there was no typo. I was referring back to college days when a persons roommate (a he) would have a sister and ask you if you wanted to go out with her. If the roommate was ugly you might assume the sister was also. But it would be better to at least get a look at the sister before making up your mind. All I am asking is to take a look at the sister. Then we can all give our opinions. Calling the marketing department and complaining before "seeing the sister" is just wrong.

You need to get back to the force and leave the Darkside. You are not good at being a jihadist. You were born to shine your sun.

You are correct, mrydel. I did say those things on Jan. 23, 2007. (My god...did you scan back thru all the posts to find that? ) Some things have changed since then...some things have not.

I will 'take a look at the sister', as you asked.

[mrydel]

Start to shine again. That's the MM65 the darksiders love to hate.

[perunapower]

Folks — back away from the ledge.

I've seen some of the Pony Up stuff. The stuff I've seen does not bring to mind the "Pony Up" (as in financial) ideas that some have floated here. I have been told by several folks in the athletic department that the commercials and visual ads (in publications, on billboards, etc.) goes way beyond the simple Pony logo with the arrow. Needless to say, TV (and radio) commercials will have a lot more than that, too.

Considering the fact that there basically has been NO campaign in recent years, any campaign is a step up. It's a good thing that there will be a visible presence around town. In my opinion, bashing it before anyone sees it is premature, at best. The marketing budget has grown to the extent that I'm fairly sure any exposure we have will dwarf anything we've seen around here in a long, long time.

But it wouldn't be any fun if they waited to see the whole picture before they bashed it!

[PK]

First of all, even a revival of Mustang Mania would not be of much value if we are not getting it done on the field. This campaign will if nothing else get SMU some more name recognition out there, but if we don't put a fun to watch, competitive, winning product out on the field, no marketing campaign will help. We need both, but a winning, exciting team will do more for us than any marketing scheme will ever do by itself. Don't know what this scheme will ultimately look like, but thank God they are at least trying.

[southerncomfort]

Most of the students here have no problem deciphering the pony up...it's one of those "Wait...what...OHHH hahaha I get it, that's cool!" (or that's lame, whatever response it wasn't negative for the most part though) So while it may not resonate too well with the broader audience, which I guess is kind of the point of the campaign, most students 'get it' - if that makes anybody feel a little better...

[jtstang]

You are correct, mrydel. I did say those things on Jan. 23, 2007. (My god...did you scan back thru all the posts to find that? ) Some things have changed since then...some things have not.

What has changed and why? You'd have more credibility if you just went back to you Jan 23 position and stayed there.

[mrydel]

First of all, even a revival of Mustang Mania would not be of much value if we are not getting it done on the field. This campaign will if nothing else get SMU some more name recognition out there, but if we don't put a fun to watch, competitive, winning product out on the field, no marketing campaign will help. We need both, but a winning, exciting team will do more for us than any marketing scheme will ever do by itself. Don't know what this scheme will ultimately look like, but thank God they are at least trying.

PK, I slightly disagree. Granted, a winning product would be great, but we were not known for packing the stands even in the "good old days" of yore (exception to Doak Walker years). Crowds were bigger due to our competitors bringing in a lot of floks, ala Tech this year. I often wonder what Northwestern did during the time they were setting an all time record losing streak. They packed the stadium every week from what I understand. My parents lived in Chicago at the time and were able to get tickets occasionally and go to a Northwesten game. Now if we can find out how they did it, perhaps we could build on that. That is why I am cautiiously optimistic about the campaign in hopes it can bring some new blood to the games. Of course an exciting team putting up wins would make them come back.

[35straight]

Most of the students here have no problem deciphering the pony up...it's one of those "Wait...what...OHHH hahaha I get it, that's cool!" (or that's lame, whatever response it wasn't negative for the most part though) So while it may not resonate too well with the broader audience, which I guess is kind of the point of the campaign, most students 'get it' - if that makes anybody feel a little better...

I think we are going to need that "broader audience". I think we only have about 7,000 undergrad. That plus the Mustang faithful, which would come no matter what the ads were, is not a whole lot of people in the stands. I feel like we are all on a runaway train and can't jump off.

[jtstang]

First of all, even a revival of Mustang Mania would not be of much value if we are not getting it done on the field. This campaign will if nothing else get SMU some more name recognition out there, but if we don't put a fun to watch, competitive, winning product out on the field, no marketing campaign will help. We need both, but a winning, exciting team will do more for us than any marketing scheme will ever do by itself. Don't know what this scheme will ultimately look like, but thank God they are at least trying.

PK, I slightly disagree. Granted, a winning product would be great, but we were not known for packing the stands even in the "good old days" of yore (exception to Doak Walker years). Crowds were bigger due to our competitors bringing in a lot of floks, ala Tech this year. I often wonder what Northwestern did during the time they were setting an all time record losing streak. They packed the stadium every week from what I understand. My parents lived in Chicago at the time and were able to get tickets occasionally and go to a Northwesten game. Now if we can find out how they did it, perhaps we could build on that. That is why I am cautiiously optimistic about the campaign in hopes it can bring some new blood to the games. Of course an exciting team putting up wins would make them come back.

When Russ Potts rolled out the original Mustang Mania campaign in the late 70s, we were still pretty mediocre. The way they got recognition was to send out free tix for distribution to virtually every high school in the metroplex. Not sure why we are afraid to use the same approach these days.

[Eddie P]

I keep forgetting to copy this message and save it for it's annual unveiling:

I dont think there are many organizations in this city that SMU does NOT offer free or dramatically reduced tickets...its getting any kind of reciprocal interest thats the problem and has been since before my time. And maybe Stallion can elaborate on this further, but I believe there are some NCAA restrictions on sending tickets to high schools as it may be a form of providing improper benefits to prospective recruits??