• by Larissa Faw , October 24, 2014

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is stepping away from the past in its newest ad campaign to look forward.

After two-plus years in the market with its “Optimists” campaign, the school’s ad shop 160over90 is shifting the campaign’s message from a focus on past accomplishments to current initiatives, shining a light on UCLA’s global impact and belief in the impossible. The latest campaign phase is called “We The Optimists.”

The first iteration of the UCLA Optimist campaign launched in early 2012 with the ‘Optimist 1.0’ TV spot featuring some of UCLA’s most notable and inspiring alumni including Jackie Robinson, Francis Ford Coppola, and James Franco. 

Then, in the beginning of 2013, 160 introduced the next iteration with ‘Optimist 2.0’, featuring a different set of notable alumni.

 “The original ‘Optimists’ campaign resonated deeply with the UCLA community, and with key opinion leaders, prospective students and faculty around the world,” said Tammo Walter, vice president and executive creative director of 160over90’s Newport Beach office.

“In the past, we’ve featured the accomplishments of notable alumni … all game-changers in their respective fields who shared a common, unyielding belief in the power of optimism. This latest iteration of the brand narrative captures that same, palpable sense of optimism, but now tells it through the lens of the UCLA campus and community as a collective.”

The campaign runs across television, radio and online. Creative includes statements such as, “They said cancer is a sentence. We said it’s just a word,” and “They said we couldn’t start a revolution. We said it’s Bruin.” Ads conclude with the tagline, “The power of optimism. The power of we.”

Ultimately, all spots are designed to drive home the idea that, through working together and with an unrivaled spirit of Optimism, UCLA is a place of opportunity and progress that can propel action and impact around the world.

"As it always is with premier, top-ranked institutions, the biggest challenge is to cover their breadth in only thirty seconds of time. With an institution like UCLA there is no shortage of amazing stories to tell, so the content curation is the trickiest part," says Megan Pomplas, Director of Client Services, 160over90.