UNIVERSITY'S PROFILE RAISED WITH NEW BILLBOARD CAMPAIGN

HATTIESBURG - The profile of The University of Southern Mississippi just got a little higher - literally.

Five new billboard advertisements promoting the university have been placed in various spots in and around Hattiesburg. The billboards, located at four different sites, are attracting the eye of passing motorists with their colorful designs and catchy slogans.

"The billboard designs are a compliment to our university brand," Director of Marketing and Public Relations Lisa Mader said. "Our goal is to appeal to students, and we believe the billboard artwork does just that."

One of the double-sided billboards - which features not one, but two of the new ads - is located on West Fourth Street near the Longleaf Trace Gateway. Colored with a gold background, one side shows a young man looking through a magnifying glass, his eye enlarged, with a slogan beneath that reads, "Keep Your Eye on the Future."

The other three locations are on Highway 98 by Lowe's, Highway 49 North near the Inn on the Hill, and on Weathersby Road near Turtle Creek Mall. The billboard near Lowe's shows a young man looking through his joined L-shaped fingers, with the slogan, "Think Outside the Box."

Lamar Outdoor Advertising rented space to Southern Miss for one of the billboards and donated space for the ad on Highway 49. The billboard on Weathersby Road was donated by local realtor Gary Sims. The double-sided billboard on West Fourth Street is owned by Southern Miss. The ads, which were designed by Terry Lacy of Copy Cats Printing, will stay up for 12 months.

Norman Beasley, general manager of Lamar Outdoor, said his company donated the space because it wanted to give something back to the community. "Southern Miss is part of Hattiesburg, and we'll do anything we can to help the school. It's just being nice people."

Impressed with the look of the ads, Beasley said he thought they could help his own business as well as the university's.

"I think they look fantastic," he said. "In fact, I hope my salespeople, when they call customers, will use them as an example of the kind of artwork that can be done to really capture people's attention."

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