I hope everyone has read the “Kittens for All First-Year Students” article the University of Idaho created to celebrate April Fools’ Day. Just by reading the headline, it becomes obvious that giving away kittens for all first-year students in the upcoming fall semester isn’t going to happen. But this is more than just a joke — it is a promotion to invite prospective Vandals.
The article was featured on the first page of the UI website on April 1, a month during which high school seniors are in the process of deciding what college they will go to and they are more likely to do research by visiting the university’s website.
In the article, I found more than 15 links that took me to other pages, like admissions, new student orientation, VandalStore, University Housing, Greek Life, Outdoor Programs and many others. These links are obviously giving out information that prospective students would be interested in.
The article jokingly introduced Feline-Undergraduate Relationship for Retention Initiative, or FURRI, which is the first in the nation with the idea of helping students adjust to college life by having a furry friend — like a kitten.
By using the pictures of kittens, UI took the April Fools’ joke to a whole new level. If you take out the whole kitty thing out of the content, you will see how this can be a promotion for them. Moreover, this article was actually picked up by somebody and was posted on BuzzFeed — which advertises UI even more.
This article has been getting a lot of attention online, mostly through shares on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Some of my friends even said this is the best April Fools’ joke ever. It was a smart move for UI to take advantage of something very likeable to promote the university.
Aside from the article itself, at the bottom of the page, there is a video called “A Day in the Life: Buster’s Day Off” made by Bigg East Digital Media. The video shows the life of a kitten, Buster, and his owner, UI sophomore Emily Rasch.
Rasch said Bigg East Digital Media won the short film contest that was hosted by Associated Students University of Idaho a week ago. Soon after, Leah Andrews, the web coordinator for Student Affairs contacted them asking their permission for the short film to be used to as a part of April Fools’ project they had been working on.
“We wanted it to be a joke,” Andrews said. “But we wanted to still kind of stay with them — the voice and the brand that we would use at the university…We wanted to still highlight the facts that we have wonderful students focus program. Even though we are not giving away kittens, we do have wonderful New Student Orientation program, we have a bookstore that will deliver books for you…We have all of these things, so why not mention them.”
The idea was funny, engaging and creative. I was very pleased to be greeted by a picture of a cute kitten every time I opened the UI website, which was more than 10 times on April 1. Well, I feel sorry for all cat haters who didn’t see this coming.
Overall, there are fun ways to do promotions and publicity, and taking advantage of April Fools’ Day created buzz for the Vandal family. This was a very smart thing to do, because not only do people like what they see, but the university has received free publicity.
Nurainy Darono can be reached at