The Newspaper Association of America launched its new advertising campaign to create a message that reading the newspaper makes users sexy. The organization is using the tagline “Smart is the New Sexy” to catch reader’s attention.
The campaign is trying to gain national acknowledgement for the importance and timelessness newspapers play in everyone’s lives, according to NAA.
Brandon Smith, a first-year business administration student at Florida A&M, said he would love to see more women reading the newspaper.
“I really admire women who read the paper and who are up to date on current events,” said Smith. “It makes a lasting impression on me and it definitely makes them more attractive to me.”
Cheryl Sadowski, vice president of communication for NAA, said local newspapers outrank all other media sources as the most trustworthy, credible and reliable source for news. Sadowski said most young adults still prefer to turn to social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook to get their news.
Brittany Demarest, a third-year business student, said she realized the world is changing due to all the technology available.
“I honestly think that it is sad that I rely more on Twitter and Facebook to tell me what is going on in the world rather than the newspaper,” said Demarest.
Sadowski said to come up with a slogan was an arduous process.
“We tried all different slogans and themes out to see which ones would grab the reader’s attention and, not to our surprise, this one stuck,” said Sadowski.
The University of Southern California, University of Texas and Oklahoma State University are just a few of the schools helping to launch the campaign in the schools’ newspapers.
“We just hope to spark a conversation with this campaign,” said Sadowski. “We aren’t looking to expect anything in return.”
The campaign will run for six weeks with more than 1,000 newspapers nationwide, digitally and in print, displaying the catch phrase—“Smart is the New Sexy.”