Want to be ferocious in college? Take physics in high school!

I have been running poster-based ad campaigns to promote physics enrollment since the 1990s. (I tried personalized, direct mail prior to that, but that was troublesome and expensive.)

Previous campaigns were documented in previous blog posts: 2016 and 2012.

But after 30+ years of teaching, some things lose their novelty. Homecoming rallies. Actually, any rally. I could go on, but I digress.

I wanted to use a different campaign for Fall 2019 sign-up season. And that season is coming up soon.

Each of us has our own school community, culture, and instructional styles to work around when designing ads. I did my best to take these into account for this newly-minted campaign.

As with the previous campaigns there is a theme and variations on that theme. Some employ my own photographs. Others use found images, some more classic than others.

These may or may not work for me. Advertising is a fickle alchemy at best. You are certainly welcome to use them if you think they may work for you.

Click to embiggen.

Take Physics: Course advertising–2016 edition

It's that time of year again. The counselors are headed out to register students for next year's classes. Sometime late in May, section counts will be determined and before school is out (fingers crossed), a master schedule will be unveiled.

If you want more students to enroll in physics next year, you might consider advertising your physics course offerings right now.

To that end, I post a series of fliers around campus. Over the years, it's actually become a few series of fliers. I'll post each series below as examples. Some you can probably use as is. One will absolutely not work for you.

In any case, you'll want to click each series to see what it looks like.

Series 1: Physics: You Don't Want to Miss It (The Original Series)

Series 2: Physics: You Don't Want to Miss It (French and Spanish)

I print Series 1 and 2 to fluorescent, coated (not dyed) "neon" paper. It's as optically bright as it is hard to come by. Here's the Amazon link I used last time I bought the stuff.

Series 3: Slogan meets Google Translate  [I'm confessing that I went too far with this series.]

Series 4: Dank Memes: Take Physics Edition

Series 5: The Groupie Shots (ft. Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Adam Savage)

Dank Memes are fun to generate, but can easily go terribly wrong—use extreme caution if you intend to create your own. Many of the templates are fraught even when they're blank. Remember: Physics is easy; poorly executed attempts at comedy can cost you your job.

The Groupie Shots? You'll need to get your own. Mine will not work for you: some kind of union contract issue, I think.

If you've got posters that you decorate your school with during course selection season, tell us about them in the comments.

PHYSiCS—you don't want to miss it

The "Take Physics—Understand the Universe" ad campaign dates back to the mid-'90s.

At its inception, it increased Physics enrollment from 4 sections to 6 sections. A minor panic ensued: there were too many students for me to teach. I was offered the opportunity to teach a 6/5ths schedule: 6 periods of instruction and no prep period; close to 200 students and no prep period. The pay would be 120%, though. I turned it down in less than one second.

Some students (juniors and sophomores) had to be denied enrollment in Physics. I was asked to draw names out of a hat. Again, I declined. "But it's your fault! You did all that advertising." I didn't disagree. And I didn't draw the names. The next year we hired a second physics teacher.

That teacher recently retired, and Physics enrollment has declined. As it was for the first 12 years of my career, I'm the only physics teacher at Rio.

I decided it was time to refresh the ad campaign. New slogan, new fonts. But most of the ad content remains unchanged.

Ad 1: Expectations of Entering Freshmen

Ad 2 Series: Wonder (3 pages)

Ad 3 Series: Do These Things (2 pages)

Ad 4 Series: Lies! (2 pages)

Ad 5: SCiSYHP

As always, I print these to "Neon Paper." This paper has a fluorescent coating on one side. It's very bright. And it's hard to find. Of late, it's not to be found at any of the office supply big-box stores. Nor could I find it at specialty paper warehouse suppliers in Sacramento. Amazon saved the day:

Pacon Neon Bond Copy Paper, 24 lb, Letter, Five Assorted Colors, 100 Sheets

I also produce an ink-draining poster that incorporates Storm Thorgerson's Dark Side of the Moon design, printed at 17"x22". I updated this one, too. My Epson Stylus Pro 3880 is large ink tanks; I can watch the matte black ink level drop during a single print.

Dark Side of the Moon Physics Ad

I also expanded into Français and Español for posting in the school's French and Spanish classrooms.

Ad 2 Series: Français - Español
I translated my original text via Apple's translation widget, than allowed the school's language instructors correct for proper usage/syntax given the context. The only non-English language I ever studied was BASIC. I'm not proud of that, and even that was a long time ago.

DSotM: Français - Español