KHS Marketing Class becomes the first school to create a Hog Days tagline

In 1973, when Kewanee Hog Days was celebrating its 20th year, the committee at that time felt the need for some type of theme or tagline in honor of the occasion. "Three Cheers for 20 Years" was created and every year since some type of tagline or theme has been used in orchestrating the event. Sometimes serious or patriotic or comical, the tagline not only sums up the "feel" of that year's event but is also used by various groups in planning floats, t-shirts or anything else tied in to hog days. This past year, Kewanee High School employee and Hog Festival Co chairperson Larry Flannery noticed and was impressed with classroom work the KHS Marketing Class had done that was being displayed in the hallways at the high school. On a whim, Flannery asked marketing teacher Casie Douglas if there was any possibility she and the class might be willing to create a tagline for the 2018 Hog Days event. The answer was yes and, as a result, the KHS Marketing Class becomes the first school to create a Hog Days tagline. 

I was very excited to start this project with my class and immediately created a unit educating the students on logo, slogan and tagline development. The students needed some background information before they could successfully come up with a quality tagline for the festival. The unit included topics such as, effective language, color schemes, and brand recognition. From that point moving forward, each student started brainstorming ideas and then ultimately started creating their individual design using Photoshop and other online tools. At the end of the project, I submitted all the designs to Larry and then the committee reviewed them all and selected the winner. 

I'd like to thank Larry Flannery, the Hog Days Committee and other Kewanee organizations for giving the KHS marketing students some real-world, hands-on experience that they will no doubt remember for years to come. The students really look forward to all the Hog Days festivities each year, so it's an added bonus to have a direct hand in creating the official tagline for the 2018 Hog Days weekend. I was really proud of how the students took an active role in learning more about the history of Hog Days and how they immediately took ownership in making sure they came up with an effective tagline that would be displayed on all sorts of marketing platforms. It will be fun for the students to actually see the tagline in the parade, on t-shirts, signage and on social media.