WuTube

Last week my office shot a fifth spot in a series of commercials featuring Wu rubbing elbows with people out in the local community. I developed the concept last year as an attempt to draw attention to the huge impact Wichita State alums have in south-central Kansas. The basic idea is: everywhere you go, there we are—with Wu serving as a kind of a visual metaphor for all of the Shockers living and working in the area. Anyway, we've already produced spots that focused on the business community, public education, health care and research—so this time we directed our attention to the local media.

I was afraid this was going to turn into a nightmare. First of all, the shoot extended over three days (usually these are shot in one day). Secondly, it required the coordination of a lot of local celebrities (and their egos).

However, much to my surprise, it went extremely well. Maybe it was due to the fact that the campaign has been pretty well received in the community, but it's been shocking (pun intended) just how accommodating people have been. For this particular spot, we got the run of the Wichita Eagle newsroom to shoot a scene with fashion columnist Bonnie Bing; share a studio with Wichita's #1 morning DJ, Brett Harris; and belly up to the anchor desk with Anita Cochran, Dave Freeman, Jeff Herndon and Susan Peters (all of whom were extremely nice and unassuming—it probably helped that a lot of them were WSU alums or huge supporters).

Anyway, the spot is not edited yet, but here's a photo of Wu with Susan Peters and Jeff Herndon at KAKE.