By Tyler Beatty |Staff writer
One of the least represented (or misrepresented) populations in the United States, within the media, are college students. Whether that is from forgetting to vote, complications with voting, or just being completely generalized by the public, there is a great difference in numbers when it comes to the representation of college-aged students.
As we enter the new decade, we all know that the 2020 Census is coming up. This is the perfect time for young adults to get their information in and be represented correctly with the rest of the country. In fact, many government agencies are encouraging college students to fill out the census early. With the help of The Board of Regents and The Networked Planet ad agency, a campaign with advertisements and commercials was filmed at Bright Screen Studios in Atlanta to broadcast all over the state of Georgia. For this campaign, they invited all of the University System of Georgia’s (USG) colleges to bring their mascot to act out different scenarios. Though all of USG’s colleges were asked to participate, about 24 colleges (including Savannah State, University of North Georgia, Columbus State, and even Augusta University) were actually represented as they sent their mascots for filming, which has been in the works for the past two months. This filming required the mascots to jump on trampolines, dance, and interact with soon-to-be photoshopped-in elements. In an interview with Craig Miller, production director, and BA Albert, creative director for The Networked Planet, they said they are trying to get an early start with encouraging college students to fill out the census - a primary goal of the campaign. They plan on having all the social media advertisements posted starting the end of February and television commercials broadcasted around the end of March.
Contact Tyler Beatty at TBEATTY@augusta.edu