Fox's Sun Sports is about to teach UF students something new about their university - Gators do not wear "jorts."
The network recently had UF advertising students develop a campaign including television commercials, billboards, radio and print ads for its "Breakfast with the Gators" program.
The ads are set to launch in August.
Out of about 100 students working on the campaign from a UF Copy and Visualization class, the network executives chose eight students they believed had the strongest concepts to develop, according to a university press release.
The winning students were on set in Kissimmee, Fla., for the production and were on hand to observe everything, right down to wardrobe decisions made by Sun Sports and the production company.
One commercial featured an actor wearing jean shorts, more commonly referred to as "jorts" by students, something Gators are stereotyped as wearing to football games.
"I remember [one of my teammates] Andrea saying 'Oh my God, you have to change him now, or we are going to get made fun of,'" UF advertising senior Alli Schnur said. "That's something they wouldn't have known without us. I know the producers liked that because we brought the true Gator into the campaign."
To promote the network's "Breakfast with the Gators" program, the students showed how breakfast and sports fit together. Their final concept is named "Feed Your Growl."
"We were looking for something that will resonate with Gator fans across the state," said Steve Liverani, vice president and general manager of Sun Sports and Fox Sports Florida. "The 'Feed Your Growl' concept does just that. It's entertaining and memorable."
In one commercial, a family of four rushes to make breakfast so they won't miss the program. The other shows a man waking up to Florida's band, the Pride of the Sunshine, in a room decked out in Gators gear.
Schnur said combining the concepts was hard at first because breakfast and sports don't usually go together.
Hanna Palmer, a fourth-year advertising major, said the experience helped her put together a polished, professional portfolio.
"We were unsure of some things, but when we showed them [our ideas] they were really impressed with us," Palmer said.
