Crafting the Whimsical World of Featherstone University
“Welcome to the place where all dreams come true, Featherstone University”, the fictionalised, satirical institution that shines a light on the absurdities and inequalities that plague the higher education industry in the US.
Created by CoMPANY Films and advertising agency TRAFFIK, ‘Welcome to Featherstone’ is Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) latest ad campaign, showing that for every outdated, biased higher education practice, there’s a place that really cares, regardless of a student’s wealth or upbringing.
Jose Lujambio, creative director at CMU’s agency of record TRAFFIK, said for this campaign, doing anything other than ‘big’ simply wasn’t an option. Over the past three years, the agency and university have set about “pushing the envelope” of what higher education advertising could and should be. The first campaign out from the partnership was made entirely using AI, resulting in their highest freshman enrollment rate the year following.
“Every year since, CMU pushed us to come up with better ideas that were centred in their values and who they are as an institution,” says Jose. Those values – love, dignity, courage, humility, resilience, curiosity and power – underpin everything that the university does, and are directly satirised throughout the Featherstone University campaign.
This latest campaign, however, demanded a perspective and level of craftsmanship that only human insight could achieve. It’s partly because of the deeply human impact of the issues that the work raises, and also due to the influence of the University’s president, John Marshall who voiced his dissatisfaction with state funding, refusing to sign an annual funding letter alongside the state’s other university leaders that would leave CMU the “lowest funded [university] in the state”, he wrote in The Colorado Sun.
He wrote, “We refused to sign the annual letter to Colorado’ Joint Budget Committee because the current system disadvantages our students – many of them first-generation and low-income. Instead, we’re advocating for a fairer investment strategy that prioritises a level playing field for our students and families.”
John's stance was a catalyst for the campaign. Jose recalls thinking, “If there’s a person willing to be this bold, then we need to do something equally as bold.”
“We couldn't have pulled this off with AI,” Jose continues. “It would have felt disingenuous, as if we were cutting corners in order to make a point. To make the real point, we had to use real individuals.”
Left, an AI visual of the campaign's protagonist, vs. right, the real actor
Standing Out in a Sea of Sameness
‘Welcome to Featherstone’ is an outlier within a category typically crowded by universities parading excellence in all areas, from state-of-the-art facilities to award-winning sports teams. And whilst that approach could have worked for CMU too, Jose shares that this campaign stands out within a “sea of sameness”.
“When you’re someone like CMU, who is trying to tell the world that you are different, that you have values that are rooted in who you are as an institution, then you need to do things differently; otherwise you can’t cut through the noise,” Jose adds.
The instruction to the creative team, including copywriters Andres Fabian and Ryan Hill at TRAFFIK was clear: “I wanted bold ideas,” Jose explains. He adds that during the development process, a colleague came to him and asked, “How far do you want me to take this?
“That's the best question you can get from your team, because you know that they want to go far and they've reached the point where they're starting to get concerned with how far they're going, because the idea may be just too ridiculous, too outrageous.
“He asked me that question and I said, ‘Take it as far as you possibly can.’”
From there, the team built a world that’s “everything that CMU is not”. Using exaggerated character types, displays of wealth and privilege and a general air of ostentatiousness, Featherstone University was envisioned as a fictional institution symbolising what’s wrong with the higher education system, whilst simultaneously spotlighting a protagonist – an “underdog” – who saw through the facade.
A Whimsical World
CoMPANY Films director Mary-Sue Masson, known for her short films, Cannes Lions-winning work for Breast Cancer Now, and period drama-style campaign ‘Here we Flo’, came on board as part of the project soon after the idea was conceived.
Specialising in narrative comedy and improvisation, Jose says that from the moment his team and himself saw her work, “it made complete sense; she had to be part of the project.”
For Mary-Sue, her first priority was sourcing the perfect shoot location. The search was cross-continental, spanning the UK, Lithuania and the US before landing on Casa Loma Castle in Toronto. Built in 1914, the historic building is the definition of decadence, making it the perfect campus for Featherstone University.
Mary-Sue then immersed herself in the world of Featherstone, drawing up everything from crest designs to the uniform in a “whimsical” colour palette to make the world a believable, yet ultimately unbelievable, place.
Above, Mary-Sue's AI storyboard visuals
As it was a fictional place of education, Mary-Sue had to ensure that the colours couldn’t be linked to real-life higher educational institutions, such as Oxford, Harvard or any number of Ivy League universities. “It had to be these really whimsical colours,” she explains. “The main thing was a rose, dusty pink, a duck egg blue and a golden yellow, which I drew from Wes Anderson's ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’.”
AI came into use during pre-production, helping to “build the world before we shot it,” says Mary-Sue. It allowed her to visualise her ideas around colour, texture, and design in relation to the environment. The art department at TRAFFIK embraced her vision, going on to use the crest, colour palette and uniform designs across the supporting assets and campaign website.
Left, Mary-Sue's AI crest rendering vs. right, the crest used throughout the campaign
Mary-Sue also took a more unconventional approach to making sure the colours on set were perfectly complementary, opting to paint each of her nails a separate colour from the palette, so that she could quickly check that everything – from props to wardrobe choices – was in alignment.
Left, Mary-Sue's colour palette nails. Right, AI rendering of Featherstone University students
“Heightened Hoity-toityness”
The spot immediately immerses viewers into the Featherstone universe; students sip tea, ride horses through the courtyard, and balance books on their heads. In the midst of it all stands the campaign’s protagonist, distracted by the decadence of the scene that she doesn’t quite fit into.
As the tour of the university begins, a string trio starts to play. Mary-Sue explains that this was an intentional use of diegetic sound for both comedic and atmospheric purposes. “It showed a sense of heightened hoity-toityness by having the music really in the space. We felt it really worked, being both grandiose yet slightly intimidating.”
Whilst the script was written before the shoot began, Jose adds that Mary-Sue was instrumental in contributing additional lines that were “entirely Mary-Sue”, drawing on her previous experience as an agency creative and lover of narrative and improvised performance.
These added extras helped to elevate the final performance, bolstering the showman-like, pompous attitude of headmistress Arabella Wrenford-Smythe, alongside the contrasting attitude of the awestruck prospective student.
The answer, the campaign explains, for those ‘Looking for something more real?’ lies in CMU, with the campaign culminating in a voiceover from the university's president and advocate for equal opportunity, John Marshall.
