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Messages on Bascom Hill grab attention

September 4, 2012 By Stacy Forster

Photo: plastic flamingoes on Bascom Hill

Plastic flamingos are among the more creative ways messages are conveyed to students on Bascom Hill. About 400 of the iconic pink flamingos were planted Tuesday as a promotion for Flamingo Run, a convenience store in the newly-opened Dejope Residence Hall. Gracing the hill with flamingos was first carried out by the student government Pail and Shovel Party on Sept. 4, 1979.

Photo: Bryce Richter

 

Look for the best marketing space…

(step, step, step, step)

To people who are keeping pace…

(step, step, step, step)

An event’s not an event until…

(step, step, step, step)

It has signs going up Bascom Hill.

The flock of 1,000 plastic flamingoes planted by the Pail and Shovel Party are probably the most memorable social statement ever made on Bascom Hill.

But day in and day out, organizations across campus use the lower third of the hill as a way to publicize events, recruit members and raise awareness. It’s a low-tech way to reach target audiences in a high-tech world.

Each year, dozens of organizations book and use the space to draw attention to student groups and events ranging from auditions for Tangled Up in Blue, an a cappella group, to honoring veterans and raising AIDS awareness.        

“It’s not something that people necessarily look for, but when it’s there, it’s hard to overlook,” says Mickey Stevens, a senior who chairs Associated Students of Madison’s Student Election Commission. “If there are signs there, people notice what they are.”

Last spring, ASM used signs on the hill featuring accessories that Bucky Badger might wear, as well as a large banner with a website URL, to remind people to vote and boost participation in its elections.

“The Bascom Hill signs definitely helped because it’s the way we reached the most students on campus, more than some of our other advertising techniques,” Stevens says.

Having the URL on prominent display made it easy for students with smart phones to vote as they were passing by, Stevens says.

“It’s not a very hard thing to get to, so people can do it while they’re out and about,” he says.

Promoting Awareness, Victim Empowerment (PAVE) is a student organization that works to raise awareness and educate students to prevent sexual assault, dating violence and stalking. In April, during a month devoted to sexual assault awareness, the group gathered in its office to make signs and got up early to plant them on Bascom Hill.

Because students are passing them so quickly, the signs need to have a short, concise message that conveys important information, says Meagan Minster, a senior and chair of PAVE. On one sign, PAVE would offer a myth, then follow it with another sign that explained the facts.

“We tried to keep it to little things that when students are walking to class, they can quickly read the sign when they walk by and come away with some new information,” Minster says.

The space is available to any registered student organization or university agency through the Campus Events Services Office of the Wisconsin Union, and may be reserved by filling out an online form.

The space can be reserved for one day, from sunup until 6 p.m., and the sponsoring organization is responsible for all cleanup. Any organization or agency is permitted to use the space three separate times each academic year.

The only displays that can’t appear on the hill are banners, signs or other materials that support candidates in municipal, county, state or national elections. Those are restricted to Library Mall or the State Street Mall, university policies say.