Smith's Advertising Identity

             I love Smith. I love the students, the professors, the alum, the beautiful campus, the traditions, and the houses. But this week I began to notice a difference in how Smith is trying to portray itself. "On Saturday, October 13, Smith College announced an ambitious $450 million campaign titled 'Women for the World: The Campaign for Smith,' an initiative with the critical goal of increasing access to a Smith education through financial aid." The idea of this campaign is amazing in every way, but if you take a look at all the beautiful Smith women on the posters, not one has the "Smith haircut" that dominates so many of the classrooms. I hadn't noticed this until after a classmate mentioned it while walking by one of the many posters around campus. While Smith celebrates its woman and diversity, it seems to have hidden, in these posters, an aspect of Smith that dominates so much of its culture. There are many woman with the "Smith haircut," and there are many woman who are lesbian.
         And when you talk to the woman they are targeting these posters to, you begin to understand why there are no short haired women in these posters. "You must have cut your hair when you got here, didn't you?" said an alum with a descending tone accourding to my housemate regarding her short bob. There has been much controversy over alums chastising Smith's direction in who they are accepting nowadays. So when Smith is asking for money from its wealthy alums, they are going to present an identity of Smith that the alums want. I have not yet met an alum that did not like me. Perhaps (this is an idea but by all means not proven or necessarily what I believe), that is due to my long blonde hair, some-what wealthy upbringing, and interest in males like them. Something I loved about Smith was how accepting its community is. When I first met my house, we introduced ourselves and were asked to tell which pronoun we preferred--whether it was he, she or gender neutral. I love the campaign and the beautiful women on the posters, I just wish it was more representative of our full diversity among Smith. It is interesting how even Smith markets itself as a certain identity to get money like many other businesses.

“ 'With a larger financial aid endowment, we can lower the economic barriers to higher education for middle- and low-income families from around the world,' said Elizabeth Mugar Eveillard, class of 1969, chair of the college’s board of trustees. 'That’s a critical step toward making Smith an even more global and diverse campus — and community — than it is today.' " I love the message this campaign is sending and the opportunities it will bring, but maybe next time we can fully show our diversity among Smith College that I fell in love with from the start.

Quotes from http://www.smith.edu/wglc/campaign.php

**Please note, none of this is to be taken offense over or even taken seriously, for I have not done the proper research or asked any of the people in charge of the campaign. This is just unproven observations about the campaign through the telescope of advertising/consumer culture identity. I am in full support of Smith and its campaigning for financial aid.