derby promotion from the classroom.

We recently recruited the students in my BRC 328: Media Copywriting class to help promote our upcoming Open House on March 25. Special guest speakers Crushed Red Pepper and Kannonball Kat-astrophe from the Oz Roller Girls came in to speak about why they started playing, as well as the physical and psychological benefits of derby. We also showed Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 of our Everyday Superheroes web serial.

What was in it for the students? In mostly two-person teams, they competed for extra credit … but moreover it gave many experience in using InDesign and Photoshop. And it was more fun than another lecture or less stimulating exercise.

This was the grand-prize winner, from Sarah Argus and Stephanie Polselli. It’s a real home run in its animated rollergirl — in the superhero theme — coupled with a simple but effective style. As promised, we’ve been using it in promoting the Open House, which invites the community to learn more about derby, see some game demonstrations and meet members of the league.

The second-place submission, from Jeffrey Donahue and Dominic Frezza, employed a photo of Insane Assilem (rollergirls liked how bad@$$ she looks) and again used a simple high-contrast execution. The question to catch the eyes and interest is good.

The only trio in the assignment, Amber Hammonds, Lauren Maio and Shannon Rosata, put a lot of work into crafting the copy around this dominant classic skates/roller rink image. The phrase “Haters gonna hate, skaters gonna skate” actually shows up in the third installment of the video series.

So we spread the word of derby a bit, students exercised their creativity and the Oz Roller Girls received an attractive flyer to promote Open House. Talk about a win all around!