Last updated on 09/19/2015
That also seems like a reasonable estimate of the ratio of good to bad publicity that big-time Duck athletics has brought to UO lately, not counting the damage from basketball coach Dana Altman of course.
With only 1.8M hits, the Animal House Shout video starring Marcus Mariota that was produced by the University of Nike’s Wieden + Kennedy ad agency has a long way to go to top the 4.7M that the UO student reporters at the Daily Emerald got for this one, of Duck footballers pummeling Emeritus Professor of Art History Sherwin Simmons, as he was on his way to a meeting about donating his art collection to UO’s Schnitzer Museum, 2 years ago:
The rumor is that Duck PR flack Craig Pintens thought a video of a fun snowball fight between the Duck football players and UO students would make for some good press, so Coach Helfrich sent his student-athletes across the river to campus.
This brilliant idea did not turn out as well as Mr. Pintens had expected. The ODE’s video about the ensuing assault went viral and hit USA Today, Good Morning America, ESPN, etc. Simmons was a mensch about the whole thing and declined to press charges, but Gottfredson had to apologize, one of the many social graces that he never quite mastered.
Mark Baker has the story in the RG on the Shout video here:
Perfect. Come to the U of O, drink beer, act like an idiot (an old adolescent idiot if you are Fouts–or Phil Knight, for that matter). All it’s missing is a rape upstairs after the party.
When they proposed to make “Animal House” at the U of O, there was serious discussion whether it fit the image Oregon wanted to present to the world. Those days are gone, obviously.
Racist. Misogynistic. Stupid. This “Shout” video plays to and represents primarily aging white male nostalgia. For what?
After a year of clear sexual and racial violence on our campus, within our community, this video pretends we have a song, as a “community,” we would promote to others? This is “our” representation of joy, to promote how marvelous it is to be a student at the University of Oregon. Hmmm. I’d love to know what women artists on this campus could make from this song, without the lawyers who think they get what the market “wants”! I’d love to know why and how the producers of this video so valiantly ignored how and why they adorned their scenes with young women who seem only adoring and old men (is that Bob B or is that John M?) (Thank god Tomlin and Bean are done and gone.) ??? What were they thinking?!
I thought last year was the worst. I hoped we would learn, we could improve – there would be caution and care, and just maybe an expression of real joy, authentic joy for learning. Nope. We brand even a thought or a question, now. It’s all wrapped in plastic in case your child can’t really come here and be in the same room with others. We will accommodate. We will accommodate.
“Moth to be” is correct. Animal House was widely criticized when it was released as racist. The director, John Landis, described the original script as “deeply offensive”, but admitted he was not able to eliminate all these elements. Here is one review:
“There’s one shocking, racist moment when Pinto, seated nervously in a black bar, asks his date her major, and she replies, “Primitive cultures” — at which point director John Landis cuts to the pomaded R&B band Otis Day and the Knights. (How did they ever get away with it?)”
Still, this video is important. Recent years have been a concerted effort to turn the real U of O into “animal house”, in the name of “student recruiting”. Mariota as John Belushi–but with a new building named after him!
Oh for heaven’s sake get a sense of humor.
Five minutes and twenty-three seconds of my life I wish I could get back. Don’t bother with it–it’s just a lame advertisement targeted at a lame audience. As for allowing Uncle Phil to portray UO as a jock/party school, that ship set sail a long time ago.