A new ad campaign for the College for Creative Studies in Detroit lightheartedly gives its academic programs the D.A.R.E. treatment. Stay off the art, kids.

I’m not sure if/where these ads are running, but I’ve seen them kicking around online for a few days and I think they’re terrific. (Update: Copywriter Joel Wescott tells me they’re running in the local metro paper and stills at the local movie theater. There’s also a radio spot.) I’m not even sure I want to critique this, since it’s a hell of a lot better than anything I’ve done lately.

Overall, this is a pitch-perfect satire of anti-drug PSAs, down to the over-dramatic, obviously posed photos of gravely serious family situations. It’s also done in a way that elevates and glorifies art school. By laughing at anyone who considers art education unwise, impractical or even reckless, the ads remind us of what a reasonable choice it really is. Of the seven ads in the series, the only one that falls flat to me is “Your mother and I raised you to do better than this.” It doesn’t fit because the dad isn’t expressing displeasure that his kid is doing art—he seems to be mad that the art isn’t good enough. This doesn’t match the rest of the ads, and could have been fixed by applying the same copy to an image where the son has actually created something impressive. Other than off note, this is really nice work. Go to art school and make ads like this.

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Who created this campaign?

Advertising Agency: Team Detroit, Dearborn, Mich.
Chief Creative Officer: Toby Barlow
Creative Director: Gary Pascoe
Art Director: Vic Quattrin
Junior Art Directors: Michael Eugene Burdick, Brandi Keeler
Copywriter: Joel Wescott
Account executives: Tim Galvin and Ashley Budchuck

Who signed off on it?

I’m guessing CCS president Richard L. Rogers. Update, via comment below: And closer to the campaign, probably Marcus Popiolek, the college’s director of marketing and communication. Update 2, via Wescott: Also, Kate Lees and Megan Mesack at CCS.

Credits and images via Scaryideas.com and Tek1Now.

Janet Echelman builds living, breathing sculpture environments that
respond to the forces of nature — wind, water and light— and become
inviting focal points for civic life. Exploring the potential of
unlikely materials, from fishing net to atomized water particles,
Echelman combines ancient craft with cutting-edge technology to create
her permanent sculpture at the scale of buildings. Experiential in
nature, the result is sculpture that shifts from being an object you
look at, to something you can get lost in.

Picasso Don Quixote Sancho.jpg