“NO, WE’RE NOT THE FORD MOTOR COMPANY!”

Problem: Poor FMC! Here they were, one of the largest U.S. corporations with a wealth of diversified businesses. Yet half the engineering students in America seemed to think they were the Ford Motor Company. FMC needed an ad campaign that would draw more informed engineering students to sessions with college recruiters.

Solution: I developed a series of two-page ads that ran over a 3-year period as the center spread in undergraduate engineering magazines across the country. Each ad touched on a different aspect of FMC’s activities and ended with the tag line -- “You’d be surprised at all the things we do.” Result? A substantial number of qualified engineering students began showing up at college interviews, applicants who were knowledgeable about FMC’s activities. In fact, when one recruiter asked his interviewee, “Do you know who we are?”, the student responded, “Well, I know you’re not the Ford Motor Company.”