The University of Alabama has released its latest television commercial for the award-winning Where Legends Are Made campaign, which celebrates the achievements of influential Capstone alumni.
Those watching the Crimson Tide’s televised game against Duke on Saturday may have already seen the spot, which opens with a scene featuring the UA football team.
Viewers are then introduced to a montage of university legends represented in scenes highlighting their accomplishments as entrepreneurs, authors, performers, innovators and CEOs.
The advertising campaign was created by Linda Bonnin, UA’s vice president for strategic communications.
“What most people know about us is that we play great football,” Bonnin said in a statement. “In the commercial, we pivot from that to the rest of the story. Let’s talk about the great things our alumni have created and done that you may not know us for.”
First, the University of Alabama’s entrepreneurial spirit is showcased in a scene featuring students meeting at The EDGE, a new state-of-the-art facility that supports entrepreneurial collaboration and innovation. The scene pays homage to such UA alumni as Joe Gibbs, co-founder of The Golf Channel; Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia; and John Hendricks, founder of Discovery Channel.
A second scene showcases a stack of books written by university alumni. These include The New York Times best seller “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett, who earned her degree in English and creative writing from UA; “Forrest Gump” by Winston Groom, who graduated from UA in 1965; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, who studied law at UA and edited the campus newspaper. She received an honorary doctorate from UA’s College of Arts and Sciences in 1990.
The university’s influence on the performing arts is also represented in a backstage shot at UA’s Allen Bales Theatre. The scene pays tribute to alumni such as Sonequa Martin-Green, Sela Ward and Michael Luwoye for their accomplishments on stage and screen.
Next, a scene was shot in Tuscaloosa’s Alberta community at a house built by Habitat for Humanity, founded by the late Millard Fuller, who earned his law degree from UA in 1960. For his work, Fuller was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in 1996. The house featured in the commercial was built through a partnership between Habitat for Humanity and the Nick’s Kids Foundation, created by Tide head football coach Nick Saban and his wife, Terry.
One of the ultimate highlights of the ad comes near the closing moments and features Marillyn Hewson — chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp, as well as an alumnus of UA. Hewson is seen directing a meeting at the Lockheed Martin facility in Bethesda, Maryland. She was named one of TIME magazine’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” for 2019 and CEO of the Year in 2018 by Chief Executive magazine. Additionally, Hewson was recognized as No. 1 on Fortune magazine’s “50 Most Powerful Women in Business” last year.
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Bonnin emphasized that this is merely a sampling of UA’s alumni who have had an exemplary impact on their industries and the world.
“Our graduates have given the world amazing gifts with their talent and entrepreneurial spirit, and they continue to bring national and international recognition to The University of Alabama,” Bonnin concluded. “We want the world to know this is the place where legends are made, and we can back up that assertion every day with the accomplishments of our alumni.”
The commercial was internally written and produced by UA’s Division of Strategic Communications. Earlier this year, Where Legends Are Made was named the best advertising campaign internationally for higher education by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education through its 2019 Circle of Excellence awards program.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
