Satvika Ananth
Staff Writer
If you happen to drive down state highway 114, brace yourself for a surprise, because you may see the friendly face of Coppell High School Principal Brad Hunt staring back at you from a billboard.
Hunt, a former student at a Dallas County Community College, was selected to participate in an advertising campaign for the colleges by telling his story to North Texas.
After graduating from Skyline High Schoo, Hunt attended Eastfield College, a member of the Dallas County Community Colleges District (DCCCD), for a year and a half before majoring in education at the University of North Texas.
“I had a great experience at Eastfield,” Hunt said. “It really helped me get a foundation, and it made a good transition between high school and college, so that I was able to stay competitive and have good time management at UNT.”
The billboard is only one part of the campaign, with a television and radio advertisement to be included as well. The television advertisement was filmed on the CHS campus on April 22 and included a number of Coppell students in the process.
Hunt was picked for the campaign after the DCCCD sent a group of profiles of former students to Verve Communications Group, an advertising company contracted by the DCCCD. Verve then contacted the former students and interviewed them to decide who had the best potential as a figurehead for the campaign.
“We picked [Hunt] because he is an educator, which is important for the marketing system,” President of Verve Communications Group Terry Loftis said. “He also had an interesting story, going from a teacher to the principal of a large high school.”
Because of his experience in education, the advertising agency hopes that Hunt will be able to reach out to parents looking for college options for their children.
When the commercial was filmed at CHS, it included two aspects, one of which was an interview with Hunt, and the other was part of the “B roll,” which would feature Hunt interacting with students, and will be used to make a video collage.
In order to make the B roll, 12 students were chosen from the senior class to participate and represent the diversity of CHS. Participating students were required to arrive before school and bring at least three different brightly-colored wardrobes with them.
“The directors treated us really well,” senior Arnold Hechanova said. “They made sure we looked our best, and even did make up for us.”
Students were directed to walk back and forth in a hallway behind Hunt, emulating a passing period, and later, they sat in a science laboratory, acting as if Hunt was teaching them. These scenes were filmed with no audio, and are expected be used as background visuals, according to Loftis.
“It was really neat to do the commercial,” Hechanova said. “We get to be on television, and they were really organized while we were filming.”
A radio advertisement featuring Hunt will also be recorded soon, featuring similar content as the television advertisement.
Hunt hopes that by using his story, the DCCCD will be able to attract students to their campus, and also give students who would otherwise not have had the opportunity an education that will help them later in life.
“It was because of some of the teachers at Eastfield that I decided to be an educator,” Hunt said. “I want to pass that message on to others.”
Video by Keely Leonard
KCBY
