Ag Alumni Association asks 'got gold?'
Ching Ching Wu, a Purdue microbiologist, uses
a diagnostic machine to detect the presence of Johne's disease,
a worldwide illness that affects nearly a quarter of the dairy
cattle herds in the United States.
Photo by Tom Campbell. |
By Tom Campbell
Donya Lester relied on a little help from her friends to make the Purdue
homecoming event on Sept. 28 memorable.
First, Lester, executive secretary of Purdue's Agricultural Alumni
Association, got together with College of Agriculture special events
coordinator Dana Neary to hatch the "got gold?" campaign.
It's a take-off on the American Dairy Association's popular "got
milk?" advertisements where celebrities show off their milk mustaches.
"The University of Kentucky did a 'got milk?' campaign, and Clemson
did a 'got orange?' version. We thought it would be neat to do 'got
gold?'" Lester says.
Neary and Lester wanted to photograph Purdue homecoming fans visiting
the College of Agriculture tent on the Engineering Mall with their gold
mustaches and post the pictures on a Web page where the fans could download
the photo.
The tough part was finding a safe color to match Purdue's unique gold
color.
"We didn't want to use anything where we had to add food coloring
to make the color match," Lester says. "We wanted to keep
it simple."
Lester hit the jackpot with butterscotch pudding, just the right color
and consistency to stay in place when dabbed on with a Q-Tip.
Lester purchased two cases from Purdue's food service department.
Four more friends joined up to help promote the event.
Ching Ching Wu, a Purdue microbiologist, uses
a diagnostic machine to detect the presence of Johne's disease,
a worldwide illness that affects nearly a quarter of the dairy
cattle herds in the United States.
Photo by Tom Campbell. |
"With Joe Tiller trying to get the fans to turn Ross-Ade Stadium
into a sea of gold, we thought it was a natural to get him to wear the
first gold mustache," Lester says.
Tiller was more than happy to oblige. So were Purdue football legend
Leroy Keyes, Purdue Pete and Rowdy. Lester used their mustachioed mugs
on posters around the homecoming site to promote the event.
"We had lots of people who were interested in getting the posters,"
Lester says. "We didn't print any for distribution, they were just
to help us get the word out to everybody at the homecoming event."
Never one to miss an opportunity, Lester says she may make more posters
for next year's event. "We'd like to make a poster to distribute,"
Lester says. "We're working on that one."
One hundred and twenty individuals or groups posed for the photos,
viewable at www.agriculture.purdue.edu/
agalumni/gotgold/others/index.htm
