University of Phoenix markets itself as “a university built for the busy” in a new commercial, that encourages people to reach their potential and see how far their wings can take them.
The 60-second ad, entitled “Discover Your Wings,” opens with a boy who reads a bedtime story about a dragon who never learned to fly because she was always too busy doing other things – keeping the town’s fires lit and using her wings to keep her family warm. As the video goes on, it turns out the boy’s mother is like the dragon. A hard-working single mother, who has a demanding job in a supermarket and spends her free time taking care of the child. One day, though, she sees a billboard advertising the University of Phoenix as a university built for the busy and decides to enroll and earn a degree in ….. Business. Eventually, the dragon learned to fly and so did the woman.
In a commercial released last year, University of Phoenix highlighted that, when the higher-education system was failing working adults in pursuit of a degree, its founder, John Sperling, changed the system and built University of Phoenix.
The spot, set in Phoenix, Arizona, 1978, follows a woman who has a lot of work to do at the office and doesn’t get in time at her final exam at the university, where teachers do not allow her to enter once the class is started. Fortunately, she discovers a place that allows her to continue her studies and keep working, too. “Universities weren’t built for working adults. Until John Sperling built one.” onscreen lines read at the end of the commercial, which also sees a teacher standing in front of a small class, with the message “Welcome to University of Phoenix” written on the blackboard.
“When Dr. John Sperling founded University of Phoenix, he was intent on pioneering a model of education that was built especially for working adult students,” said Peter Cohen, president of University of Phoenix, in a press release. “He recognized that these students were eager to learn and develop themselves professionally, but that the academic landscape was not geared toward providing them opportunities to do so. He set out to change that, and in the process, he gave the University a mission that is even more relevant today than it was all those years ago”.
