Purdue gives its image a facelift with new slogan

Move over, Boilermakers. Purdue University has a new slogan.

The university's new branding campaign is built around the words "We are Purdue. Makers, all." Officials say the slogan aims to capture Purdue's land-grant mission as well as its athletic and academic achievements.

"There are a lot of things behind it," Teri Lucie Thompson, Purdue's vice president for marketing and media, told The Journal & Courier of Lafayette. "What Purdue offers students, the real world experience, STEM disciplines and making a difference in the world. It goes to the idea that Purdue is a catalyst for transformation."

Purdue's current brand dates from 1891, when a newspaper writer in a rival college town referred to Purdue football players as coal heavers and boiler makers.

Thompson said the university held focus groups and surveyed more than 5,000 people ranging from students and alumni to corporate partners and state legislators to develop the new brand.

"We wanted to make something that was uniquely Purdue," she said.

Some students say the new slogan is a little confusing. But the campaign, launched as part of homecoming week activities, has received largely good reviews so far.

"This gives everyone the chance to say what being a Boilermaker means to you. I thought it was genius," said Ashley Solgere, a Purdue senior and president of the student advertising association.

"Boiler Up is definitely associated with sports, and I think 'Makers, all' includes everybody," she said.

The new branding campaign has been launched on the Purdue campus and is featured in temporary displays at sites including the Loeb Playhouse, Elliott Hall of Music and Armstrong Hall.

A plaque on a model of the moon that represents Purdue's accomplishments in space reads in part: "Because we are makers: Explorers who are driven to see things never before witnessed. We are 22 astronauts strong."

Purdue is home to Neil Armstrong, the first person to walk on the moon, and Eugene Cernan, the most recent person to do so, along with 20 others who've gone into space.

Thompson said the campaign will eventually expand beyond Purdue's campus and could be featured on billboards along Interstate 65, at the Indianapolis International Airport and in television spots on the Big Ten Network.

The campaign is expected to last up to four years.