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Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Power League of Printing?

A sidebar in Larry Kroll's Whose Job Is Training and Education? An Open Letter to the Graphic Arts Community pointed to a marketing video produced by Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF):

At GRAPH EXPO the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) began distribution of a new recruiting video for our industry. It was developed in response to a request from an attendee at the GASC/PIA/GATF Teachers Conference several years ago who indicated that, although several great websites provide information about careers in our industry, printing is not on the average student’s radar screen. Something was required to draw students’ attention to our industry and these websites. Fuji, Kodak, Heidelberg, MAN Roland, Sun Chemical, and X-Rite sponsored the effort to develop and produce a new video for young students.

Here's the video.

Be sure to also check out the Myspace page: http://myspace.com/powerleagueofprinting

Both the video and the Myspace profile are geared to drive people back to the Power League of Printing Website. Once you arrive there you would expect to find information about career paths in the industry, but when you click the Career Info link, it brings you to a page with links to the companies that sponsored the project.

Could this campaign do a worse job of portraying the printing and graphic communication industry as an information distribution industry?

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8 Comments

  1. That is an exceptionally horrible video. I wonder how much money they spent on marketing and production to come up with a video and a site like that. Where is the career info?

    Comment by Mike - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 03:17 PM

  2. Was this video used to attract ambitionless skill-lacking "students" into our industry? If so, it meets its objectives.

    I ended up in this industry by happy accident. Good thing I didn't see this while I was deciding what industries to pursue.

    We deserve whatever bad things happen to us.

    Comment by Joe Webb - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 03:38 PM

  3. Adam beat me to blogging about this one first. It, combined with its lousy website and myspace page, smacks of the worst type of desperation. And what's worse is that the people involved think this is what will reach that edgy mySpace demographic.

    Even if we get to the lack of information about the print industry, the character designs are borderline offensive (in particular Glossyboy). It seems to be trying to cop John Kricfalusi's (Ren and Stimpy's) style without understanding it.

    There are a number of templates out there to look at to sell the industry (ABC's Ugly Betty being one of the more interesting ones).

    Excellent comments Joe.

    Comment by Matt Bernius - Wednesday, March 7, 2007 at 04:23 PM

  4. It shocks and saddens me that key industry players have their names associated with this video and site.

    I agree with the comments so far - especially with Joe's - who would ever want to hire those lacking ambition, enthusiasm, work ethic among many other qualities that make up a good worker?

    I was lucky enough to take a graphic arts class in high school that allowed me to explore what the industry has to offer..and is the reason why I am still excited about the industry to this day!

    Thanks for the post Adam!

    Comment by Maria Falaschi - Thursday, March 8, 2007 at 12:12 PM

  5. I heard about this video a while ago and saw it right after GraphExpo. It's been a few years in the making, actually. It is pretty ridiculous, and I'm sure a good deal of money was spent on it.

    There has to be a better way...

    Comment by Bryan - Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 07:10 AM

  6. "I hope he's gonna get some pants!"

    Comment by Charlie - Saturday, March 10, 2007 at 08:17 PM

  7. I got a real shock when I watched this. Of all the things that are wrong with it, the biggest one is that it's insulting to the audience it was created to influence. Almost as bad is the way it trivializes the industry. Did anyone think of screening the film before a group of high school students prior to release? Did the sponsors get an advance look? It's a misfire in every way...how sad for printing.

    Comment by Patrick Henry - Sunday, March 11, 2007 at 05:37 PM

  8. Yes, the video is really bad and crass but what might hurt more is that deep down, these are the types of future students and employees that the teachers and managers in the industry really want.

    They want new subjects that can learn skills and work hard but who don't really ask the difficult questions from those already in the industry, who have a hard time answering.

    Maybe I am wrong but in your heart, do you really want people to come into your organization that are smarter than you. If you don't, then you know why there is a downward spiral in talent. If you do, then you have to be prepared to listen to what they have to say.


    Comment by Erik Nikkanen - Thursday, March 29, 2007 at 10:37 PM