Heather Swain, assistant vice president for university relations, headed the university’s latest TV advertising campaign, which is MSU’s first since 2005. The university also produced commercials in 2004 and 2000.

Swain said MSU is a school that’s known nationally more for its athletics programs than its academic programs, but that actually can be an advantage when promoting the scholarly merits of the university.

“Sometimes I think that people worry that athletics overshadow our academics. To me, that’s just part of the package of who we are,” Swain said.

Using MSU’s athletics programs to advertise the university as a whole was a key concept behind the campaign, she said.

MSU hired Creative Communication Associates, an agency based in Albany, N.Y., to produce the two advertisements, which cost the university $82,000.

In the first advertisement, Ibok was filmed tapping a jump ball during the tipoff of a staged MSU basketball game. The ball then transforms into a spinning globe as the words “We Touch the World” flash on the screen, followed by several examples of MSU’s global achievements.

Ed Sirianno, Creative Communication Associates president, said filming took place at Breslin Center and it took two hours to record the 30-second spot.

Sirianno said Ibok deserved credit for giving the film crew the look it wanted.

“He really looks like he’s ready to play. It feels like you’re right in the middle of a game,” Sirianno said.

Swain said the commercial took cooperation among the athletics department, the students and the film crew. A baskebtall game was used because advertisements usually are aired during games, she said.

“We’re trying to use that as a bridge to talk about our fundamental mission purposes of a university,” Swain said.

The second advertisement is of a floating leaf, accompanied by music from English musician Nick Drake.

Sirianno said Drake’s lyrics connected with the messages he heard from students on campus.

“Students told me, ‘It felt so right. I had to be here (at MSU),’” Sirianno said.

MSU spokesman Terry Denbow said MSU’s advertisements are different from more formulaic advertisements featured by other schools.

“Most of them are, ‘We’re the first in this (program), the fourth in this, the fifth in this, the sixth in this,’” Denbow said. “If you didn’t see a logo, you couldn’t tell Minnesota from Wisconsin, from Iowa, from Texas.”

Swain said during televised athletic games, each university receives free airtime for about 30-seconds to promote its institution. Because the ads air so infrequently, MSU doesn’t produce one every year.

“Financially, you want to use them more than one year because they have relatively low exposure,” she said.