City Asks Wieden+Kennedy to Figure Out How to Help Portland's Public Schools

The Portland advertising firm's logo
By HANNAH HOFFMAN

Wieden+Kennedy took a break recently from selling Old Spice and hanging with Clint Eastwood to sell a different kind of product: Portland's public schools.

At a Feb. 16 conference called "GOOD Ideas for Cities: Portland," put on by GOOD, the non profit and quarterly magazine dedicated to look for solutions to public problems, representatives from the Pearl District advertising firm unveiled their plan to motivate Portlanders to donate to schools.

Among their ideas:

• Appeal to the 85 percent of Portland residents who don't have kids in public school. They've designed logos featuring the 85 percent vs. the 15 percent.

• Recruiting local designers to create school logos so cool hipsters will want to wear them on T-shirts and as tattoos.

• Encourage local businesses to interact with schools. They even named a few names: the Ace Hotel, Comcast and Sera.

The did the work for free at Mayor Sam Adams' request, according to his spokeswoman Amy Ruiz. The entire video of the presentation, including Adams' input at the end, can be watched here:



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